January 26, 2021
Media headline that Mitch McConnell announces he’s willing to abandon the filibuster
By Andrea Widburg
Most of the time, Americans pay scant attention to the rules that the House and Senate choose to govern themselves. We laugh when the House decides to go for gender-neutral language, but none of us think that makes any real difference. However, in the Senate, “China†Mitch McConnell has paved the way for a rule change that will allow the Democrats to alter forever America’s long-standing structure and enable them to become a permanent governing class.
The Senate currently is split perfectly in half, with fifty Senators who are Democrats and fifty who are Republicans. It would be nice if that created a stalemate, which would at least keep Congress from harming America, but that’s not the case. Kamala Harris is now the tie-breaking vote on any deadlocked initiative. In other words, the Senate effectively has a Democrat majority.
The only thing protecting the minority interest in a Senate the reflects America’s strong ideological divisions is the filibuster. This rule went into effect in 1806 – that is, 215 years ago. The filibuster allows a senator, or a group of senators, to block legislation from going forward by continuing to debate a matter unless “three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn†vote to end the debate by invoking cloture. Currently, the filibuster is all that stands between the Democrats adding new states that will give Democrats a permanent Senate majority and packing the Supreme Court – which will effectively nullify the Constitution.
The Senate rules for making rules call for senators in a new Congress to vote on new rules for the upcoming two-year period. This is strictly a vote among senators and the Vice President cannot break a tie. With the Senate as currently constituted, the only way to break the tie is if Mitch McConnell, the Minority Leader, agrees to rules that satisfy the whole Senate. The fate of the filibuster rests in McConnell’s hands.
more
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/01/mitch_mcconnell_announces_hes_willing_to_abandon_the_filibuster.html
