Biden Backs Democrats Eliminating the Filibuster to Ram Through ‘Voting Rights’ Legislation
“That means whatever it takes. Change the Senate rules to accommodate major pieces of legislation without requiring 60 votes”
Now that the ‘Build Back Better’ bill is basically dead, Democrats are moving on to their next target. They want to pass their supposed ‘voting rights’ bill and they’re willing to suspend the filibuster to do it.
Biden apparently supports this.
Morgan Chalfant reports at The Hill:
Biden backs exception to filibuster for voting rights bills
President Biden says he supports creating an exception to the legislative filibuster in the Senate in order to pass voting rights legislation over Republican opposition.
Biden told ABC News’s David Muir in a portion of an interview that aired Thursday that he would support fundamental changes to Senate rules in order to pass election reform legislation.
“That means whatever it takes. Change the Senate rules to accommodate major pieces of legislation without requiring 60 votes,” Biden said.
When asked to clarify that he supported a carveout for voting rights legislation from the 60-vote threshold needed to pass most bills in the Senate, Biden said that he did.
“The only thing standing between getting voting rights legislation passed and not getting passed is the filibuster, I support making an exception on voting rights of the filibuster,” Biden said.
The remarks are similar to those that Biden made during a CNN town hall in October, when he opened the door to “fundamentally” altering or eliminating the filibuster to advance voting rights legislation.
Senator Ted Cruz is sounding the alarm over this.
Katie Pavlich writes at Townhall:
Cruz Warns About Latest Move from Democrats that Would Be ‘Catastrophic’ to the Country
After President Joe Biden’s expensive Build Back Better agenda failed in the Senate this week, Democrats immediately pivoted to an issue that gets their base worked up: voting rights.
Despite spending decades in the U.S. Senate defending the filibuster, Biden is now willing to strip it away for the sake of federalizing elections, eliminating voter identification and giving the left a hold on power. He explained his position during an interview with ABC News Wednesday evening…
Republican Senator Ted Cruz is warning the result will be catastrophic for the country and goes against majority support from American voters.
Biden and the Democrats are preparing to change Senate rules forever so they can ram through a bill—the Corrupt Politicians Act—that would gut voter ID laws that 80% of Americans support. This corrupt power grab would be catastrophic for our country. https://t.co/QYzuU7RMkf
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 23, 2021
What happened to all the talk about protecting the nation’s norms?
Seriously, just imagine a party that is willing to destroy all norms and nuke the Senate filibuster to radically change voting rules before an election they're on track to take heavy losses.
If it was the GOP, the cries of "end of democracy" would be deafening. https://t.co/0o9Zl7K9P5
— Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) December 23, 2021
When your approval is in a nose dive and your party is panicking, so you decide the best solution is for your party to take control of the election.
Because that doesn't sound third worldish.
— The Grumpy Git (@TheGrumpyGitPA) December 23, 2021
I’m beginning to think all that stuff about preserving norms was just a bunch of anti-Trump talking points.
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Passing a national election law would put pressure on State GOP legislatures to do something to prevent a national power grab.
And… they will do NOTHING.
You look vaguely familiar for a viking. Do you have a grizzled twin by chance?
I am glad you are retired. Does that mean you’re done pillaging and sacking villages?
No. All I can do know is suck and pillage. The other part I can’t do anymore.
I had to give those to up, plus the third thing.
Sorry no, passing a national election law is the federal power grab. Nothing to prevent after that. It’s done.
Passing a national election law would prevent state legislatures from doing anything about it, no matter how much pressure they would feel. The constitution clearly gives Congress full authority over every aspect of congressional elections, except the location of polling places for senate elections. If Congress passes this it’s game over.
I really think the left is actively trying to force an armed conflict.
There is a super precedent: slavery and civil war. NOW, it’s diversity (i.e. color judgment, class-based bigotry), inequity, and exclusion. And voting rites exercised at the Twilight Fringe, were demos-cracy… democracy is aborted in darkness.
This will be the moment when Manchin, Sinema and other Democrats finally say “Enough!”. The real question is whether the execrable McConnell Gang of 19 “saves” the day for the Marxists again. This is the decisive moment. Do they really want a civil war?
I hope you’re right.
As has been said previously, the Democrats have no intention of ever having an honest election again. It is all Soviet style from here. This is about power and control, not politics. This is all expected.
“Biden apparently supports this.”
Wake me when there’s actual news.
Okay Rip van Bowman. Have a good sleep.
behold, johnson’s “vision” nearly sixty years on
“great society” indeed
Great society?
Or, a society that grates?
This is another attempt to gin up support and enthusiasm for the d/prog during the midterm. IMO the proposed rule change will not pass. Heck even if it the filibuster rule is modified which means all the red and purple State d Senators must vote for the change including Manchin they still have to pass a bill.
Recall that the Constitution grants each State legislature with control of Statewide and local elections as well as authority over the ‘time, place and manner’ of Congressional elections. At best the proposed bill would apply to Presidential elections and some but not all aspects of Senate elections and have zero impact on elections to the HoR, State or local offices. A Constitutional amendment would be necessary for this Feds to impose their policies more broadly.
IMO this is a stunt designed to excite the d/prog base while also putting pressure on reluctant d Senators such as Manchin to support other aspects of the Biden agenda. It also works to apply some pressure to r Senators in purple States and make a run at open seats in red States.
Well, careful on that. The bill works by doing the usual things that the Federal government does when it wants the states to do something that the Constitution won’t allow — it allows the Feds to use money (ours, of course) to bribe the states into going along. This works all the time.
The bill also works by leveraging the extensions of the 14A — for example, the 14A allows the Federal government to pre-clear certain aspects of state voting laws to prevent discrimination. The new bill extends that, and writes the rules in such a way that all 50 states, not just southern states, will be held accountable. Once you get the DOJ involved you have de facto Federal control.
So no, not a stunt but a very serious attempt to grab power.
Respectfully, I disagree. The Constitution and 250 years of history grants States control of State and local elections, time place and manner of HoR and the place of Senate elections. Period full stop. A mere statute doesn’t overcome that. The 14th amendment argument doesn’t wash without specific evidence that the States are engaging in unconstitutional behavior. Allegations that a neutral State election statute is somehow nefarious because it has election integrity provisions that d/prog disagree with don’t cut it.
That said the d/prog, their lawfare network, the DoJ and their media allies will absolutely try to make a case just as you suggest. The Shelby decision, which ended pre clearance in those nearly exclusively Southern States it was applied to, has been buttressed in subsequent cases. Perhaps even strengthened in some aspects. That is the source of the d/prog frustration and desire to somehow impose not just pre clearance but Federal control.
IMO I don’t see this being successful. It’s wish casting on the part of the d/prog. They have to:
1. Get 60 votes to overcome a filibuster to change a rule
2. Get 50 votes plus the VP vote to change the rule
3. Get 50 votes + the VP to pass the legislation
4. Survive parliamentary shenanigans and manipulation of the r to do all that; what if a vote o rama is Manchin’s price then he submits legislation in coordination with r to create one or more poison pills?
5. Even if passed the States will sue to block and are likely to get it stalled until it works through trial and appeals
6. Ultimately SCOTUS would need to toss explicit Constitutional language granting State power by choosing to reinterpret the 14th amendment some 150 years later to encompass this idea.
That’s a very long way between now and then with plenty of room and many ways to stop this before it every big comes a reality. Not that the d/prog won’t push for it but IMO it’s another effort they believe will fail. They push this crap to fire up their true believers, cast their opponents as evil ‘ist’ in an attempt to damage r and as a hail Mary that has a very tiny chance of working and they figure what the heck nothing ventured nothing gained.
No it doesn’t, at least not explicitly. If you’re referring to section 5, congress would have to show that the states are violating the amendment. It can’t just speculate that they might do so.
But Congress has full control over all congressional elections and can make any regulations it likes, and there’s nothing the states can do about that, no matter how outrageous they are.
The current push is a stunt if they know Manchin and Sinema are not on board for the rule changes, but maybe Chucko knows something we don’t. Also, they can bring it up and when it gets bogged down suspend it, but retain the ability to bring it up again at a moments notice if an opportunity arises. A GOP Senator from a State with a Dem governor dying would create such an opportunity, and Democrats have a history of making their own luck.
Absolutely. The d/prog will make every effort to advance their goal to change the electoral system from a diverse system of State control to a unified system Federal control. No question about that. What I do question is whether they actually believe they can get this across the finish line or if they are shooting for the moon no matter how unlikely in a bid that primarily:
1. Assists fundraising
2. Helps their get out the vote effort for midterms
3. Gives another opportunity to call r ‘ist’
4. Allows their media allies to paint r as evil forcing them onto the defense to explain why the r are against this idea
5. Has a small chance of success but if you don’t try you won’t succeed
And in the very next sentence gives Congress ultimate authority over all those things, no matter what the states want, except for the location of polling places for senate elections.
You have that exactly backwards. How presidential electors are chosen is fully in the hands of state legislatures, so Congress would have trouble justifying its interfering with those. But it would apply in full to house and senate elections, since Congress has almost total control over those.
Milhouse,
You are correct. Thanks for pointing out the flaw in my caffeine deprived tirade. The key point is that there are multiple steps in the legislative process to get this over the line. Even then, as you note, it would apply to the elections process for the HoR; time place, manner and the same minus place for the Senate.
The legislation would not impact Presidential elections nor Statewide offices, State Legislature, County or municipal elections. IMO, should this legislation actually pass the States should invite the Feds to set up the election system they wish to impose for HoR and Senate. The State can’t be commandeered. Then the States should simply continue to run the elections system they choose for the remaining elections which are inarguably under their control.
When the Feds fail to set up a parallel system of registration for these newly federally controlled elections the CTs will have to decide whether to toss the votes. I don’t think the CTs after making a large amount of noise re ‘potentially nullifying votes’ in the course of 2020 can easily do so to enforce Fed election laws that the Feds won’t bother to set up and maintain. We still disagree on that point.
The other point here is the limited number of offices this legislation would impact. I doubt most people understand that it’s limited to HoR and Senate (- place). They assume it would apply to all elections which simply isn’t the case. Sure some blue States would jump feet first to comply but many States will not.
Rep states can’t run congressional elections that don’t comply with the rules congress sets for them. They can refuse to run congressional elections altogether, in which case their seats in congress remain vacant, and the representatives from the Dem states pass whatever they like with no opposition.
The bill purports to also apply to presidential and state/local elections, but there the states have a good argument that it’s beyond congress’s power, and the courts may well strike that part of the bill down.
Biden seems to get more bitter, vicious, and tyrannical as he ages. Daily.
Selfish you know what.
If you’ve ever been around a family member or family friend who went through what Biden is clearly going through (cognitive decline), you would have seen this before. This is how they get. It’s part of the disease. It’s one of the many reasons Alzheimers is so rough for families; their loved ones don’t recognize them and they don’t recognize the behavior of their loved ones. It’s a stranger in the body of their mother or father.
You’ve described Biden quite accurately. His mind is gone. He can’t keep up. He can’t think clearly. He can’t string two sentences together. He cannot handle the rigors of the job, But he’s not really running anything anyway, it’s just a child’s game of play and pretend as if you’re president.
One day this week Putin talked to reporters for over four hours at one session. Biden is unable to go four minutes. You think Putin doesn’t know what’s going on when he talks to Biden? Everybody in the world knows.
Trump went 2 hours in some of his Covid briefings.
And like the “nuclear option,” it will bite them in the butt once again.
Too bad we have to suffer in the interim.
This one wouldn’t because they’d never lose power again due to never losing another election.
Unless if they lost anyway, despite all their advantages. If the stock market crashes in addition to all the other stuff going on, they might get royally creamed no matter what the rules are.
They will keep pushing until we go nuclear.
DEFENDERS OF DEMOCRACY ? ? ?
How is it that The Jackass Party has positioned themselves as “defenders of democracy” ? ? Many time in the last 5 years the Jackasses have proven they are ANTI-DEMOCRATIC. The DNC cheated so that Bernie Sanders would not be the nominee in 2016 – Sanders campaign even sued the DNC – see the public court documents.
https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/263779-sanders-sues-democratic-party
Also, Hilary Clinton with help of DNC operatives and sympathizers – undermined a sitting president – Trump – in a operation that was treasonous.
Stacy Abrams still contends that she won the GA Governor’s race in 2018.
The DNC has a history of cheating and dirty tricks.
Why isn’t the Republican Party pushing back against the DNC ludicrous attempt to be seen at the defenders of democracy. They want “science” to be personified by Fauci AND now they want “democracy” to be personified by Biden.
THE REALITY – THE JACKASS PARTY HATES DEMOCRACY, AMERICA AND WHITES (defined as anyone that is opposed to their radical agenda and power ambitions)
If democracy is a sheet – the DNC is a sheep in wolf’s clothing.
If DNC were a person – they would be diagnosed as a psychopath.
Typo Correction – “If democracy were a sheet” >> should be “sheep”
In the spirit of the season I shall refrain from expressing any crude wordly thoughts on this. Instead I will share this heartfelt Christmas toast. (courtesy of Hillaire Belloc),
“May all good fellows that here agree
Drink Audit Ale in heaven with me
And may all my enemies go to hell!
Noël! Noël! Noël! Noël!
May all my enemies go to hell!
Noël! Noël!”