Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday warned Democrats that ending the filibuster would bring President Joe Biden’s agenda to a standstill and lead to retribution in years to come.
The filibuster gives the minority a voice and keeps the majority from ramming through any legislation they want.
Top Democrats, including the two highest-ranking party members in the Senate, have pushed for an end to the longstanding procedure.
The filibuster has long been seen as a mechanism requiring bipartisan consensus that distinguishes the Senate from the House of Representatives, where only a simple majority is needed on legislation.
With the current Senate split 50-50, Democrats want to get rid of the filibuster to pass their radical left agenda.
“This chaos would not open up an express lane to liberal change. 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,” McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said on the Senate floor.
“Nobody serving in this chamber can even begin … to imagine what a completely scorched-earth Senate would look like,” he added, saying Republicans would require votes on all parliamentary moves, drastically slowing the pace of business.
Two moderate Democrats – Senator Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin – have opposed doing away with the filibuster, though Manchin has suggested he would possibly relent on it.
McConnell said those lawmakers were now under pressure from their colleagues to reverse course.
But Manchin reaffirmed his position to reporters in comments that could allay the Republican’s concerns. “The bottom line is, you can’t get rid of the filibuster,” the West Virginia Democrat said.
McConnell also warned that Democrats would face a starkly conservative agenda on labor, energy, abortion rights, border security, and gun ownership in 2022 if Republicans took back the majority with the filibuster no longer in place.
“We wouldn’t just erase every liberal change that hurt the country. We’d strengthen America with all kinds of conservative policies with zero – zero – input from the other side,” he said.
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