Days ahead of a Senate floor vote to change the long-standing filibuster rule, Republicans accused Democrats of hypocrisy and warned the move will be met with GOP retribution, even if it doesn’t succeed.
“Voting to break this institution will not be a free vote or a harmless action, even if their effort fails,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said in a Senate floor speech Tuesday. “An unprincipled attempt at grabbing power is not harmless just because it fails. Voting to break the Senate is not cost-free just because a bipartisan majority of your colleagues have the wisdom to stop you.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is forcing votes this week on partisan election reform measures that the GOP is poised to block using the filibuster. Schumer, a New York Democrat, said that in response to Republican opposition to the bills, he will hold a vote to curb the use of the filibuster.
Schumer justified the action by arguing that Democrats must find a way to pass their election overhaul bills in order to block red-state voter integrity laws that he said will make it harder for people to vote, in particular minorities.
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“If the right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy, then how can we in good conscience allow for a situation in which the Republican Party can debate and pass voter suppression laws at the state level with only a simple majority vote but not allow the United States Senate to do the same?” Schumer said Tuesday.
Schumer and other Democrats argued the filibuster rules requiring a 60-vote threshold to pass legislation are out of date and have led to obstruction by the minority.
Democrats, however, have frequently made use of the filibuster, employing it hundreds of times during the Trump administration to stop the GOP from passing legislation. Democrats used it last week to block a GOP amendment that would have sanctioned the construction of a Russian gas line to Germany.
“Last week, they literally wielded the 60-vote threshold themselves — a useful reminder of just how fake the hysteria has been,” McConnell said.
Democrats and liberal groups now demanding an end to the filibuster had urged the GOP to maintain the rule when Republicans controlled the Senate.
Now, Democrats compare the rule to decades-old discrimination policies in the South.
“Democrats want the American people to believe the filibuster was not a Jim Crow relic in 2005, was not a Jim Crow relic in 2020, became a Jim Crow relic in 2021, briefly stopped being a Jim Crow relic last Thursday, but is now back to being a Jim Crow relic this week?” McConnell said.
Democrats and Republicans became engaged in an intense battle over the filibuster after the Biden agenda stalled and forced Democrats to abandon a plan to use a budgetary tactic to circumvent Republicans and pass massive social welfare and green energy spending bill.
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While GOP opposition is unanimous to both election laws and a filibuster change, Democrats have an even bigger problem within their own ranks, with centrist Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona warning they’ll deny the majority Democrats need to alter the long-standing rule.
Schumer said he plans to hold the vote to force every member “to go on record.”
