Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Again warned Democrats on Tuesday that removing legislative obstruction would “break the Senate” and turn the camera into a “100-car pileup” where chaos reigns.
Why does it matter: Democrats are under increasing pressure from progressives to set aside obstruction for issues of exceptional importance, such as voting rights legislation that would counter the wave of voting restrictions passed by Republicans at the state level.
- But the Sens moderates. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) Said they oppose the abolition of the measure, as did President Joe Biden.
Driving the news: Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), The second Senate Democrat, said on Monday that the obstruction is “mocking American democracy” and holding the camera “hostage”.
- Durbin expressed opposition to the abolition of the obstruction in 2018, when Republicans held the majority, saying it would be “the end of the Senate”.
- Asked about his change of position on Tuesday, Durbin said Igor Bobic from HuffPost: “Senator McConnell taught me that I was wrong. He managed to use and abuse the obstruction so many times and stopped the Senate in his way.”
The big picture: The obstruction, which subjects most of the Senate legislation to the 60-vote limit, aims to protect the interests of the minority. But this has increasingly led to an impasse and has turned the Senate into a legislative graveyard for bills passed by the House.
What they are saying: McConnell warned in the Senate plenary on Tuesday that if Democrats removed the obstruction and Republicans removed the majority, “we would not just erase all the liberal changes that are hurting the country – we would strengthen the United States with all kinds of conservative policies with zero , zero entry on the other side. “
- He promised that the Republican majority would immediately empty Planned Parenthood and sanctuary cities, push abortion restrictions, increase security on the southern border, and more.
- “No one serving in this House can even begin, or even begin to imagine what a completely devastated Senate would look like,” warned the Republican leader.