Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing back on Democrats’ plan to eliminate the filibuster.
On Tuesday, he delivered a very stark warning to his colleagues should liberal lawmakers successfully rid of the rule.
Use your imagination, McConnell suggested, and picture a “scorched-earth.”
“Let me say this very clearly for all 99 of my colleagues,” he said. “Nobody serving in this chamber can even begin, can even begin, to imagine what a completely scorched-earth Senate would look like.”
Republicans will retaliate with the strictest of measures if forced, McConnell warned.
“I want our colleagues to imagine a world where every single task, every one of them, requires a physical quorum.”
In other words, McConnell is threatening to make lawmakers physically show up to Congress for every single small procedural action or vote.
As of now, the legislative filibuster in the Senate requires 60 votes in order to end debate on a certain issue and move to a floor vote. Far-left Democrats hope to get rid of it in order to jam through partisan policy.
McConnell and the Republicans, on the other hand, argue it’ll only lead to more gridlock in Congress.
And gridlock means nothing gets done.
“… this is not a trade-off between trampling etiquette but then getting to quickly transform the country. That’s a false choice.”
“Even the most basic aspects of our colleagues’ agenda, the most mundane task of the Biden presidency, would actually be harder not easier,” McConnell said.
“This chaos would not open up an express lane to liberal change,” McConnell added. “It would not open up an express lane for the Biden presidency to speed into the history books. The Senate would be more like a 100-car pileup, nothing moving.”
The reality of the Senate situation is far from the dream Democrats had hoped for, with Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Arizona, both repeatedly refusing to strike down the filibuster.
The Horn editorial team