In 2005, Barack Obama argued in defense of the filibuster on the Senate floor and now refers to the tactic as a “Jim Crow relic” ......... a comment that resident Joe Biden echoed on Thursday.
It’s creepy how this guy Obummer thinks he gets two and three bites of the political apple.
He had his turn......he should STHU.
“Recount your stolen holdings, Bummer, and hope you’re not invested w/ a Madoff.”
Washington Post.com
Opinion: Democrats have vigorously used the filibuster. It’s pathetic they now won’t pledge to protect it.
By Marc A. Thiessen, January 26, 2021 at 4:34 p.m. EST
The good news is: Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has secured what he says is an ironclad promise from two Democrats not to eliminate the legislative filibuster. The bad news is: The filibuster hangs by a fragile, two-vote thread.
In 2017, when Donald Trump was president and Democrats were in the minority, 61 senators — including 30 Democrats — signed a letter promising to preserve the right of the Senate minority to delay or block legislation.
But now that Republicans are in the minority, just two Democrats — Sens. Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) — are willing to make that same pledge. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) not only refused, he warned he will not allow the GOP minority to “dictate to the Senate what we should do and how we should proceed.”
When Schumer was minority leader, he vigorously used the filibuster to do just that. Under his leadership, Democrats used the filibuster to block funding for construction of Trump’s border wall in 2019.
They used it not once, but twice to impede passage of the Cares Act — forcing Republicans to agree to changes including a $600 weekly federal unemployment supplement. They used it in September and October to stop Republicans from passing further coronavirus relief before the November election.
They used it to halt Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-S.C.) police reform legislation so Republicans could not claim credit for forging a bipartisan response to the concerns of racial justice protesters.
They used it to block legislation to force “sanctuary cities” to cooperate with federal officials, and to stop a prohibition on taxpayer funding of abortion, bans on abortions once the unborn child is capable of feeling pain, and protections for the lives of babies born alive after botched abortions.
And those are just the bills Democrats killed with actual filibuster votes. More often than not, the majority doesn’t even bring up legislation that does not have 60 votes needed to cut off debate. Just the threat of a Democratic filibuster stopped Republicans from moving forward on a host of priorities, including entitlement reforms, immigration reforms, lawsuit reforms, health-care reforms, budget cuts, expanded gun rights and the defunding of Planned Parenthood.
And Democrats have used the filibuster to force Republicans to reduce the scope of some of their biggest legislative achievements. Republicans could not make the Trump income tax cut permanent, because they had to use the arcane budget reconciliation process (which requires a simple majority vote, but limits what can be enacted) to avoid a Democratic filibuster.......snip......