{"id":229916,"date":"2021-03-16T13:00:51","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T17:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=229916"},"modified":"2021-03-16T13:00:52","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T17:00:52","slug":"mcconnell-warns-democrats-what-republicans-will-do-if-democrats-end-filibuster-would-be-childs-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mcconnell-warns-democrats-what-republicans-will-do-if-democrats-end-filibuster-would-be-childs-play\/","title":{"rendered":"McConnell Warns Democrats What Republicans Will Do If Democrats End Filibuster: \u2018Would Be Child\u2019s Play\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmcconnell-warns-democrats-what-republicans-will-do-if-democrats-end-filibuster-would-be-childs-play%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=229916&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/McConnell-1-scaled-1.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) warned Senate Democrats on Tuesday of what the Republican Party would do if Democrats attempted to go for a power grab by eliminating the legislative filibuster.<\/p>\n<p>McConnell\u2019s remarks come as left-wing activists are pressuring Democratic Senators to eliminate the filibuster in an attempt to ram through President Joe Biden\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are arguing for a radically less stable and less consensus-driven system of government,\u201d McConnell said. \u201cForget about enduring laws with broad support. Nothing in federal law would ever be settled. Does anyone really believe the American people were voting for an entirely new system of government by electing Joe Biden to the White House and a 50-50 Senate? This is 50-50 Senate. There was no mandate to completely transform America by the American people on November 3.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McConnell said that&nbsp; the filibuster was the only thing that stands in the way of Democrats ramming through their entire agenda is false.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, let me say this very clearly for all 99 of my colleagues: Nobody serving in this chamber can even begin to imagine what a completely scorched-earth Senate would look like,\u201d McConnell said. \u201cNone of us have served one minute in a Senate that was completely drained of comity and consent. This is an institution that requires unanimous consent to turn the lights on before noon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want our colleagues to imagine a world where every single task, every one of them, requires a physical quorum \u2014 which by the way, the Vice President does not count in determining a quorum,\u201d McConnell continued. \u201cEverything that Democratic Senates did to Presidents Bush and Trump\u2026 everything the Republican Senate did to President Obama\u2026 would be child\u2019s play compared to the disaster that Democrats would create for their own priorities if they break the Senate. So this is not a trade-off between trampling etiquette but then getting to quickly transform the country. That\u2019s a false choice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven the most basic aspects of our colleagues\u2019 agenda, the most mundane tasks of the Biden presidency, would be harder, not easier, for Democrats in a post-nuclear Senate that\u2019s 50-50, dead even,\u201d McConnell continued. \u201cIf the Democrats break the rules to kill Rule 22, on a 50-50 basis, then we will use every other rule to make tens of millions of Americans\u2019 voices heard. Perhaps the majority would come after the other rules next. Perhaps Rule 22 would just be the first domino of many, until the Senate ceased to be distinct from the House in any respect. 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 hundred-car pile-up. Nothing moving.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McConnell concluded by reminding Democrats that several years ago he warned them that they would regret eliminating the filibuster for judicial nominees and that after former President Donald Trump got to select three Supreme Court justices that many of them did end up regretting it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTouching the hot stove again would yield the same result. But even more dramatic,\u201d McConnell said. \u201cAs soon as Republicans wound up back in the saddle, we wouldn\u2019t just erase every liberal change that hurt the country. We\u2019d strengthen America with all kinds of conservative policies with zero\u2014zero\u2014input from the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McConnell listed the following things that Republicans will do the moment they regain control of the federal government:<\/p>\n<div id>\n<p><em>MITCH MCCONNELL, SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: Mr. President, today I\u2019d like to begin today with a few quotations.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Quote: \u201cThe legislative filibuster\u2026 is the most important distinction between the Senate and the House. Without the 60-vote threshold for legislation, the Senate becomes a majoritarian institution just like the House, much more subject to the winds of short-term electoral change. No Senator would like to see that happen. So let\u2019s find a way to further protect the 60-vote rule for legislation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>That was the current Democratic Leader, Senator Schumer, in April of 2017. Less than four years ago.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Here\u2019s another quote. \u201cWhat about [the] nuclear option, doing away with the filibuster?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI can tell you that would be the end of the Senate as it was originally devised and created going back to our Founding Fathers. We have to acknowledge our respect for the minority, and that is what the Senate tries to do in its composition and in its procedure.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>End quote.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>That was the Assistant Democratic Leader, Senator Durbin, in 2018. About three years ago.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>A few years ago, 33 members of the Senate [Democratic] side signed a letter insisting that \u201cwe preserve existing rules, practices, and traditions\u201d regarding legislation.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Now, under pressure from the outside, many of our Democratic colleagues are abandoning their stated principles as fast as possible.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Yesterday Senator Durbin said the filibuster is not a core principle, but, quote, \u201can offhanded clerical suggestion.\u201d An offhanded clerical suggestion.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>And a number of Senate Democrats are trying to pressure the senior Senators from West Virginia and Arizona to abandon their own very recent commitments to honor this central rule of the Senate.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>***<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Mr. \/ Madam President \u2014 the framers designed the Senate to require deliberation\u2026 to force cooperation\u2026 and to ensure that federal laws in our big, diverse country earn broad enough buy-in to receive the lasting consent of the governed.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>James Madison said the Senate should be a \u201ccomplicated check\u201d against \u201cimproper acts of legislation.\u201d Thomas Jefferson said, \u201cgreat innovations should not be forced on slender majorities.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Senate Democrats parroted all these arguments when they were the ones benefiting from minority protection. When President Trump pressed Republicans to kill the filibuster, our Democratic colleagues cried foul.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>And when our Republican majority stood on principle and refused to wreck the rules, our Democratic colleagues happily used the filibuster themselves.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>In some cases, they flat-out blocked legislation, like Senator Tim Scott\u2019s police reform bill.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>In many other cases, Democrats did what minority parties always do, and leveraged the existence of the filibuster to influence must-pass legislation long before it got to the floor.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>There\u2019s so much emphasis on the most extreme bills that either party might pass with a simple majority. People forget that the Senate\u2019s 60-vote threshold is the only reason, the only reason, that any routine, must-pass legislation is bipartisan except during divided government.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Big funding deals. Appropriations bills. Farm bills. Highway bills. The NDAA. The Senate\u2019s 60-vote threshold backstops all of it. It\u2019s not just about controversial items; it\u2019s about everything we do.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The Senate Democrats who are pressuring our colleagues from Arizona and West Virginia to reverse themselves are not just arguing for some procedural tweak. Not a procedural tweak. They are arguing for a radically less stable and less consensus-driven system of government.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Forget about enduring laws with broad support. Nothing in federal law would ever be settled.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Does anyone really believe the American people were voting for an entirely new system of government by electing Joe Biden to the White House and a 50-50 Senate? This is 50-50 Senate. There was no mandate to completely transform America by the American on November 3.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>That may be what a few liberal activists want. Does anyone believe that\u2019s what millions of Americans thought that\u2019s what they were electing?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Of course it\u2019s not.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>***<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>There\u2019s an ironic element to this whole conversation.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Some Democratic Senators seem to imagine this would be a tidy trade-off. If they could just break the rules on a razor-thin majority, sure, it might damage the institution, but then nothing would stand between them and their entire agenda. A new era of fast-track policymaking.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>But anyone who really knows the Senate knows that is not what would happen.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>So, let me say this very clearly for all 99 of my colleagues: Nobody serving in this chamber can even begin to imagine what a completely scorched-earth Senate would look like.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>None of us have served one minute in a Senate that was completely drained of comity and consent.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>This is an institution that requires unanimous consent to turn the lights on before noon\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>To proceed with a garden-variety floor speech\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>To dispense with the reading of lengthy legislative text\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>To schedule committee business\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>To move even noncontroversial nominees at anything besides a snail\u2019s pace\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I want our colleagues to imagine a world where every single task, every one of them, requires a physical quorum \u2014 which by the way, the Vice President does not count in determining a quorum.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Everything that Democratic Senates did to Presidents Bush and Trump\u2026 everything the Republican Senate did to President Obama\u2026 would be child\u2019s play compared to the disaster that Democrats would create for their own priorities if they break the Senate.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>So this is not a trade-off between trampling etiquette but then getting to quickly transform the country. That\u2019s a false choice.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Even the most basic aspects of our colleagues\u2019 agenda, the most mundane tasks of the Biden presidency, would be harder, not easier, for Democrats in a post-\u201cnuclear\u201d Senate that\u2019s 50-50, dead even.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>If the Democrats break the rules to kill Rule 22, on a 50-50 basis, then we will use every other rule to make tens of millions of Americans\u2019 voices heard.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Perhaps the majority would come after the other rules next. Perhaps Rule 22 would just be the first domino of many, until the Senate ceased to be distinct from the House in any respect.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>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 hundred-car pile-up. Nothing moving.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>***<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>And then there\u2019s the small matter that majorities are actually never permanent.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The last time a Democratic Leader was trying to start a \u201cnuclear\u201d exchange, I remember offering a warning.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I said my colleagues would regret it a lot sooner than they thought. And just a few years and a few Supreme Court vacancies later, many of our Democratic colleagues said publicly that they did.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Touching the hot stove again would yield the same result. But even more dramatic.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>As soon as Republicans wound up back in the saddle, we wouldn\u2019t just erase every liberal change that hurt the country. We\u2019d strengthen America with all kinds of conservative policies with zero\u2014zero\u2014input from the other side.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>How about this? Nationwide right-to-work for working Americans. Defunding Planned Parenthood and sanctuary cities on day one. A whole new era of domestic energy production. Sweeping new protections for conscience and the right to life of the unborn. Concealed-carry reciprocity in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Massive hardening of security on our southern border.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>We saw during amendment votes just days ago that some common-sense Republican positions actually enjoy more support right now than some of the Democratic committee chairs\u2019 priorities.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>And this is with them in the majority.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>So this pendulum would swing both ways and it would swing hard.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>My colleagues and I have refused to kill the Senate for instant gratification. In 2017 and 2018 I was lobbied to do exactly what Democrats want to do now. A sitting president leaned on me to do it. He tweeted about it.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>What did I do? I said to the president at that time, \u201cno.\u201d I said no repeatedly because being a U.S. Senator comes with higher duties than steamrolling any obstacle to short-term power.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I meant it. Republicans meant it.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Less than two months ago, two of our Democratic colleagues said they mean it too.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>If they keep their word, we have a bipartisan majority that can put principle first and keep the Senate safe.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><i><span>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i><span>member<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span>.&nbsp;<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) warned Senate Democrats on Tuesday of what the Republican Party would do if Democrats attempted to go for a power grab by eliminating the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2310600,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/McConnell-1-scaled-1.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"McConnell Warns Democrats What Republicans Will Do If Democrats End Filibuster: \u2018Would Be Child\u2019s Play\u2019","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/McConnell-1-scaled-1.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"McConnell Warns Democrats What Republicans Will Do If Democrats End Filibuster: \u2018Would Be Child\u2019s Play\u2019","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2310600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}