April 7, 2021 - Epoch Times
12:57
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| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| Regarding the filibuster, at John Lewis's funeral, President Barack Obama said he believed the filibuster was a relic of the Jim Crow era. | |
| Do you agree? | |
| Yes. | |
| If not, why not abolish it if it's a relic of the Jim Crow era? | |
| Biden answers, I just want to point out there was a young senator from an obscure state, a young senator with a funny name, who at one time gave a robust defense of the filibuster, you know, before he called it a relic of the Jim Crow era. | |
| But the American people sent us here to be their voice. | |
| They understand that those voices can at times become loud and argumentative, but they also hope that we can disagree without being disagreeable. | |
| And at the end of the day, they expect both parties to work together to get the people's business done. | |
| What they don't expect is for one party, be it Republican or Democrat, To change the rules in the middle of the game so that they can make all the decisions while the other party is told to sit down and keep quiet. | |
| The American people want less partisanship in this town but everyone in this chamber knows that if the majority chooses to end the filibuster If they choose to change the rules and put an end to democratic debate, then the fighting and the bitterness and the gridlock will only get worse. | |
| And at one time, there was a senator from a small state of Delaware who likewise in 2005 gave an equally passionate defense of the filibuster. | |
| And I have never conducted a filibuster. | |
| But if I did, the purpose would be you have to deal with me as one senator. | |
| It doesn't mean I get my way. | |
| It means you may have to compromise. | |
| You may have to see my side of the argument. | |
| That's what it's about, engendering compromise and moderation. | |
| Ladies and gentlemen, the nuclear option extinguishes the power of independents and moderates in this Senate. | |
| That's it. | |
| They're done. | |
| Now, back to President Biden's answer as to why keep the filibuster if, in fact, it is a relic of the Jim Crow era. | |
| If not, why not abolish it if it's a relic of the Jim Crow era? | |
| Successful electoral politics is the art of the possible. | |
| all. | |
| Let's figure out how we can get this done and move in the direction of significantly changing the abuse of even the filibuster rule first. | |
| It's been abused from the time it came into being by an extreme way in the last 20 years. | |
| Let's deal with the abuse first. | |
| A relic of the Jim Crow era. | |
| Roots are racist. | |
| You mean like the racist roots of the minimum wage law? | |
| Like the racist roots of gun control? | |
| Both of which are aggressively embraced by today's Democrats? | |
| Now, we know that President Biden regularly consults with former President Barack Obama. | |
| Here is the former President Barack Obama's current position on the filibuster. | |
| Once we pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, we should keep marching to make it even better by making sure every American is automatically registered to vote, including former inmates who've earned their second chance. | |
| By adding polling places and expanding early voting and making Election Day a national holiday. | |
| So if you are somebody who's working in a factory or you're a single mom who's got to go to her job and doesn't get time off, you can still cast your ballot. | |
| By guaranteeing that every American citizen has equal representation in our government, including the American citizens who live in Washington, D.C. and in Puerto Rico. | |
| There are Americans by ending some of the partisan gerrymandering so that all voters have the power to choose their politicians, not the other way around. | |
| And if all this takes eliminating the filibuster, another Jim Crow relic, in order to secure the God-given rights of every American, then that's what we should do. | |
| Recall that when the Democrats were in charge and they changed the rules so that Obama's lower court nominees could get through with a simple majority, they were warned by Mitch McConnell Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is warning Democrats against discarding the filibuster to push through the president's agenda over Republican opposition. | |
| Speaking on the Senate floor today, McConnell threatened to shut down the most routine business in the chamber in retaliation. | |
| The Kentucky Republican mocked top Democratic leaders for arguing against the rule, although he defended it when Republicans controlled the Senate. | |
| Again, they changed the rules so that Obama's lower court nominees could get through and... | |
| and? | |
| For the first time in the history of our republic, Republicans have routinely used the filibuster to prevent President Obama from appointing his executive team or confirming judges. | |
| The rule change will make cloture for all nominations other than the Supreme Court, a majority threshold vote. | |
| Yes or no. | |
| The Senate is a living thing. | |
| And to survive it must change, as it has, over the history of this great country. | |
| Again, Mitch McConnell warned them. | |
| Once again, Senate Democrats are threatening to break the rules of the Senate, break the rules of the Senate, in order to change the rules of the Senate. | |
| And over what? | |
| Over what? | |
| Over a court that doesn't even have enough work to do? | |
| The majority leader promised He promised. | |
| Over. | |
| And over again. | |
| That he wouldn't break the rules of the Senate in order to change them. | |
| And let's not forget about the raw power. | |
| The raw power at play here. | |
| On this point, the similarities between the Obamacare debate and the Democratic threat to go nuclear on nominations are inescapable. | |
| But that didn't stop the Democrats, did it? | |
| It's time to change. | |
| It's time to change the Senate before this institution becomes obsolete. | |
| So I say to my Republican colleagues, you don't have to like the laws of the land, but you do have to respect those laws and acknowledge them and abide by them. | |
| Consistent and unprecedented obstruction by the Republican caucus has turned advise and consent into deny and obstruct. | |
| McConnell talked about what would happen when the shoe is on the other foot. | |
| If you want to play games, set yet another precedent that you'll no doubt come to regret. | |
| Say to my friends on the other side of the aisle, you'll regret this and you may regret it a lot sooner than you think. | |
| And change the rules they did. | |
| Democrats changed the rules so that Obama's nominees at the appellate level could get through with a simple majority. | |
| And when the Republicans regained control, well, Trump nominees got through at the Supreme Court level with a simple majority, just as McConnell warned would happen. | |
| A bitter Senate battle over President Trump's Supreme Court pick, culminating in a move so drastic it's called the nuclear option. | |
| The ayes are 48. | |
| The nays are 52. | |
| After Democrats blocked a vote on Neil Gorsuch, Senate Republicans going nuclear, changing the number of votes needed to confirm a Supreme Court nominee from 60 to 51. | |
| Again, don't be deluded, it was the Democrats who changed the rules first. | |
| Look at this headline from NBC, not exactly a Republican supporting organization, you know. | |
| McConnell went nuclear to confirm Gorsuch, but Democrats changed Senate filibuster rules first. | |
| In 2013, Senate Democrats then in the majority triggered the nuclear option for the first time. | |
| Frustrated by what they considered the relentless Republican obstruction of Obama's appointments, Democrats, led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, changed the rules so that lower court and cabinet nominees could be confirmed with a simple majority rather than the typical 60-vote threshold. | |
| End of quote. | |
| Now in September 2020, before the election, a former Democrat Michigan Senator named Carl Levin wrote an op-ed piece where he warned about what would happen if the filibuster got destroyed. | |
| Here's what he said. | |
| Some progressives, probably because they assume Democrats are going to control the Senate after the election, are arguing that the filibuster should be abolished. | |
| In the words of John Steinbeck, I guess a man is the only kind of varmint that sets his own trap, baits it, and then steps in it. | |
| The temptation to end filibusters during consideration of legislation would create such a trap. | |
| It would exacerbate polarization by embracing one-party rule. | |
| It would strip Congress of the only procedural path to forcing negotiation and compromise. | |
| And it would be certain To backfire. | |
| Again, this is a Democrat former senator who says Democrats have successfully used the filibuster to prevent Republicans from cramming stuff down their throats. | |
| Democrats should also not forget that the filibuster has been used many times to advance or protect policies they believe in. | |
| When Republicans were in control of the Senate from 2003 to 2006, it was a Democrat minority that blocked a series of bills that would have severely restricted the reproductive rights of women. | |
| In 2005, Democrats blocked Senator Ted Stevens' effort to use the Defense Appropriations Bill to open ANWR to environmentally damaging oil drilling. | |
| 2015, it was used to block Republican legislation to borrow funding for Planned Parenthood. | |
| 2018, blocked a bill that Trump had demanded for the southern border wall. | |
| At that time, an enraged Trump denounced the filibuster, urging Mitch McConnell to use the nuclear option, get it done, our country is counting on you." So, when is a relic not a relic? | |
| When the shoe is on the other foot and those guys are in charge. | |
| What do they want to do? | |
| They want to abolish the filibuster so they can do a wealth tax, raise corporate taxes, raise personal income taxes, Create a new state for Washington, D.C., a new state for Puerto Rico? | |
| Did I mention reparations? | |
| Did I mention the Green New Deal? | |
| Did I mention tuition forgiveness, debt forgiveness, and a whole bunch of other things that they're sure they're going to think of down the road? | |
| The filibuster has been used in order to create compromise. | |
| All of a sudden, the Joe Biden presidency that was supposed to unite us is no longer interested in compromise. | |
| Can you say hypocrisy? | |
| You live here? | |
| Yes. | |
| Maybe you know what a zombie is. | |
| When a person dies and is buried, it seems there are certain voodoo priests who have the power to bring him back to life. | |
| How horrible. | |
| It's worse than horrible because a zombie has no will of his own. | |
| You see them sometimes walking around blindly with dead eyes, following orders, not knowing what they do, not caring. | |
| You mean like Democrats? | |
| Now, we have been completely demonetized by YouTube, as you know, So in order to keep getting The Great Elderski unfiltered and on demand, just go to LarryTube.com. | |
| That's LarryTube.com because we've got a country to save. |
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