Trump doesn’t need 60 Senate votes to fix the border and short-circuit a shutdown
Daniel Horowitz · December 21, 2018
Last night, Chuck Schumer said at a press conference, “The Trump temper tantrum will shut down the government, but it will not get him his wall.†The truth is that if McConnell would actually lead and enforce the rules of the Senate, this decision wouldn’t be Schumer’s to make.
Thankfully, the president and the Freedom Caucus finally decided to stand up to the establishment and discovered the facts that Trump has a veto pen and that Republicans still control the House. The president threatened a veto of the open-borders budget, and as I’ve long predicted, the House dutifully passed a budget bill with $5.7 billion for the wall. It would have been nice if this had been done weeks ago, and it would be helpful if they included fixes to the asylum loopholes, courts, and sanctuaries as well, but I’ll take this.
Don’t we need 60 votes to pass this, you might ask? The answer is very simple. If McConnell and his colleagues actually used the Senate rules and fought for our sovereignty with the same vigor with which they fight for Supreme Court justices, the border wall could prevail.
There is a big misconception that it takes 60 votes to pass anything in the Senate. That is not true. The reality is that the majority party controls the “chair,†aka presiding officer, and the majority gets to rule on motions with simple majority votes. A bill can also be passed with a simple majority, eventually. Where the 60-vote threshold comes into play is only if Democrats choose to hold the floor and continuously engage in debate. To shut off debate without any tedious brinkmanship, yes, it takes 60 votes (or procedural unanimous consent) to proceed to the bill. However, given that this is the end of the line for GOP trifecta control, there is no greater issue than border security, and Democrats will be made to look like the ultimate obstructionists on behalf of illegal aliens and drug cartels, isn’t it worth it to finally force them to engage in a talking filibuster until they relent?
Here’s how it works.
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https://www.conservativereview.com/news/trump-doesnt-need-60-senate-votes-to-fix-the-border-and-short-circuit-a-shutdown/