The Biden Administration has had its ups (not a lot) and downs (mostly). The Afghan withdrawal, supply chain issues, continued high Wuhan flu numbers, inflation, Supreme Court losses, abysmal polling results-even Stacey Abrams stood President Biden up at his recent speech in Georgia. You name it, the Administration continuously stumbles from catastrophe to calamity.
And then there is the President’s legislative agenda.
With a 50-50 Senate, the Democrats need all 50 Democratic Senators to sign on to legislation to get it passed (with Vice President Harris, as President of the Senate, being the tiebreaking vote, if necessary). However, Democratic Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona opposed the Build Back Better bill in its present form. Without those two, Senator Schumer didn’t even bother to bring the bill to a floor vote.
When it became clear to the Democrats that they could not get the Build Back Better bill passed (I heard someone ask the other day: “How come you never see Build Back Better hats?”), the Democrats revisited their next big idea: two voting rights bills to expand the federal government’s role in elections. The Democrats claim the bills will prevent Republican state legislatures from limiting or violating the voting rights of minorities, women, college students, you name it. In short, anyone who they think might not vote for Donald Trump if he runs in 2024.
Of course, up to this point in America’s history, the states were responsible for “[t]he Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections….” That’s from Article 1 of the Constitution.
Article 1 also states that Congress may pass laws on how the states handle elections. Hence, the two bills (The Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act).
The Democrats Tried to Pass the Voting Bills in 2021
These bills were successfully filibustered by the Republicans late last year. They were able to do that since Senator Schumer could not then (and cannot now) round up 60 Senate votes to cut off the filibusters of the bills.
As they continue to try to pass the voting bills, with a 50-50 Senate, it doesn’t look good for the Democrats. Republicans leadership has made it clear the Republicans will again filibuster the voting bills if they come to the floor of the Senate. And the reaction from the progressive left? Well, if we can’t get our bills passed, let’s change the rules! Let’s change or eliminate the filibuster! After all, according to President Biden, the filibuster is “Jim Crow 2.0.” And if you are in favor of using the filibuster to oppose the voting bills, you’re akin to Jefferson Davis, George Wallace and Bull Connor.
Well, the Democrats still have a problem. Both Senators Manchin and Sinema, although in favor of the two voting bills, are opposed to modifying or disposing of the filibuster. And Senator Schumer needs all 50 senators and VP Harris in order to change or eliminate the filibuster (which is a rule of the Senate; rules can be changed or removed by a simple majority vote).
Democrats Have Short Memories
This is not the first time the Democrats sought to change filibuster rules. In 2013, the Republicans filibustered three of President Obama’s nominees to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. In response, then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid used the “nuclear option” to push through a new rule reducing the threshold for ending debate on nominations from 60 to a simple majority.
The rule change pertained to Executive Branch and lower court nominees, not the Supreme Court or legislation.
In that session, the Democrats had a 53-45 advantage over the Republicans (two independent Senators typically voted with the Democrats).
Three Democratic senators, including Senator Manchin, voted against the rule change.
Senator McConnell, then the minority leader, told the Democrats they would regret using the nuclear option to change the filibuster rule.
Then Comes 2017
Not to be outdone, in 2017, now Majority Leader McConnell, with a 51-seat Republican majority, set off another bomb to Senate tradition. He pushed through a rule change eliminating the use of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees. As a result, the Republicans confirmed President Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee, Justice Gorsuch. The vote was 54-45, with three Democrats voting to confirm.
Subsequently, the Senate voted 50-48 to confirm Justice Kavanaugh.
The vote for Justice Barrett was 52-48, with all Democrats and Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine voting against her.
The point is, do Senator Schumer and other Democratic leaders think Democrats will be perpetually in the majority? I guess Senator Schumer does not remember saying in 2005 that elimination of the filibuster rule would be the “doomsday for democracy.” He also proclaimed that eliminating filibusters would make the Senate into the “rubber stamp of dictatorship.”
Does Senator Schumer remember the Democrats used the filibuster 314 times, the most against a single president ever, during the Trump presidency (President Obama faced 175)? In fact, President Trump got so frustrated that he asked Senator McConnell to get rid of the filibuster.
McConnell refused.
Seems that he knew something Senator Reid didn’t, and Senator Schumer doesn’t.
Just this week, the 27th and 28th Democratic incumbent House representatives announced that they were not running for reelection. Is that an indication that the Republicans in the House and the Senate will regain the majority this year?
I guess we’ll see.
Anyone care to guess what Chuck’s position on the filibuster will be if the Republicans regain the majority?
UPDATE:
Yesterday, Senator Schumer attempted to use the “nuclear option” to change the filibuster rule so that the two voting rights bills could be passed with a simple majority. But Senators Manchin and Sinema held firm. The Senate voted to not change the filibuster rule to lower the 60-vote requirement to end a filibuster for this legislation.