Another thought to ponder.
The Democrats hate to lose (who doesn’t) but they are willing to legally “cheat” the system in order to gain their agenda.
Our government was created to make enacting laws and changing the Constitution difficult. Both houses and especially the Senate have rules in place to protect from a congressional dictatorship or monopoly. By the Constitution, each house can make or change its own rules.
The Senate rules allow for a filibuster or continued talk by a senator who is not limited in time like the House Representatives are.
Over 100 years ago the Senate enacted a rule called Cloture. If 60 senators voted to end a debate or filibuster, they could. So basically it only takes 51 votes as a simply majority in the Senate to pass a bill but it takes 60 to force a vote. So even a minority party might still be able to prevent a bill from passing or at least until they get a compromise.
The only way out of Cloture requirement “without” a 60 vote majority required, is the nuclear option. It is a loophole in the Senate rules in order to get around the rules.
Obama was having a hard time getting his progressive judge nominations passed by the Senate due to the Republicans not agreeing to enact Cloture. The Republicans were blocking many Obama nominated judges from taking office. That is the system, however.
Harry Reid as the Senate Majority Leader threatened to use the nuclear option if Republicans kept using their authority to hold up the vote. Reid was warned by the Republicans to play by the rules and not use the nuclear option which was legal but a direct overriding of the Senate rules. Reid was told that the Democrats would not be in office forever and if they used it to get federal judges passed, so would the Republicans in a future Congress. Reid said to heck with it and used the option. They got some federal judges approved.
Fast forward to Trump’s first term. The Republicans took over the Senate but did not have the 60 votes to enact Cloture and get Trump‘s Supreme Court nominees passed. Guess what?
Yep, the Republicans used the nuclear option to get Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett put on the Court. The Dems cried, we didn’t want THOSE federal justices confirmed with the nuclear option. We just wanted OUR federal judges to be confirmed that way. Oops!
Oh well, you were warned. So to the Dems complaining about the current Court ruling against their wishes….. you can thank the Senate Democrats.
So a little over a year ago, the Democrats in the Senate wanted to change the rules and completely eliminate the filibuster. That would mean that in any future Congress, a mere 51 vote, simple majority could enact any law in the Senate. Only Democratic Senator Joe Manchin voted no and did not support the other Democrats. He believed that the rules were in place for a reason and it should apply to everyone. He knew that the Democrats would not always be in charge and they would pay the price later like they already have. So by one vote the filibuster was maintained as a Senate rule.
Most recently, Kamala Harris suggested using the nuclear option for abortions on demand. Okkkayyyyyy…….
So now, since the end of the filibuster was defeated by Manchin, Harris believes that any law is not subject to the filibuster simply by using the nuclear option on everything. If you don’t like the way of vote would go and you don’t want to compromise with the other party, simply vote on it with the nuclear option!! Of course Harris thought that she would win so if there was a tie in the Senate, Walz would be the tiebreaker just asc shecwas. Oops!
So now the Republicans have Senate. It appears that they may take the House. If they control both houses, they could have now pass any bill into law with single vote in both houses and Trump would likely sign it, had Harris and the Democrats gotten they way..
Luckily for the Democrats, Joe Machin prevented that future disaster.
Remember that there was talk of stacking the Supreme Court by the Democrats adding more members like maybe a 15 justice Court. The Democrats don’t like to play by the rules, but as always happens, the ball eventually goes to the other side of the court.
Oops, now the ball is in Trump’s side of the court. If the Democrats had gotten their way, Trump could start enacting any law that he wished with almost no repercussions.
I wonder how the Democrats would have liked that?
