Democrat Sen. Kyrsten Sinema took aim at her own party regarding the legislative filibuster, calling Democrats hypocrites for attempting to rid the Senate of a procedure they used themselves several times last year.
From Fox News:
“To those who want to eliminate the legislative filibuster to pass the For the People Act (voting-rights legislation I support and have co-sponsored), I would ask: Would it be good for our country if we did, only to see that legislation rescinded a few years from now and replaced by a nationwide voter-ID law or restrictions on voting by mail in federal elections, over the objections of the minority?” Sinema wrote in The Post.
“This question is less about the immediate results from any of these Democratic or Republican goals,” she continued. “[I]t is the likelihood of repeated radical reversals in federal policy, cementing uncertainty, deepening divisions and further eroding Americans’ confidence in our government.”
The duo of Sinema and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin have stood in the way of their party’s attempt to eliminate the filibuster, frustrating many in the party that see the procedure as a roadblock to enacting much of President Joe Biden’s agenda.
Sinema also pointed out that Democrats used to filibuster several times themselves as the minority, helping them stop much of former President Donald Trump’s agenda:
“Once in a majority, it is tempting to believe you will stay in the majority. But a Democratic Senate minority used the 60-vote threshold just last year to filibuster a police reform proposal and a covid-relief bill that many Democrats viewed as inadequate,” Sinema wrote. “Those filibusters were mounted not as attempts to block progress, but to force continued negotiations toward better solutions.”
Senate Democrats used the filibuster 327 times in 2020, while Republicans only used the procedure once.
The filibuster was also unpopular with Trump, who early in his presidency encouraged then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to eliminate the rule in order to carve a path for his agenda. But McConnell resisted the pressure from Trump, keeping the filibuster in place.
Now some Democrats say the procedure they used 327 times last year is archaic.
“An archaic Senate rule cannot get in the way of protecting our democracy,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
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