Opinion: Democrats have vigorously used the filibuster. It’s pathetic they now won’t pledge to protect it.
“…When Schumer was minority leader, he vigorously used the filibuster to do just that. Under his leadership, Democrats used the filibuster to
block funding for construction of Trump’s border wall in 2019. They used it not
once, but
twice to impede passage of the Cares Act — forcing Republicans to agree to changes including a $600 weekly federal unemployment supplement. They used it in
September and
October to stop Republicans from passing further
coronavirus relief before the November election. They used it to
halt Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-S.C.)
police reform legislation so Republicans could not claim credit for forging a bipartisan response to the concerns of racial justice protesters. They used it to
block legislation to force “sanctuary cities” to cooperate with federal officials, and to stop a
prohibition on taxpayer funding of abortion,
bans on
abortions once the unborn child is capable of feeling pain, and
protections for
the lives of babies born alive after botched abortions.
And those are just the bills Democrats killed with actual filibuster votes. More often than not, the majority doesn’t even bring up legislation that does not have 60 votes needed to cut off debate. Just the threat of a Democratic filibuster stopped Republicans from moving forward on a host of priorities, including entitlement reforms, immigration reforms, lawsuit reforms, health-care reforms, budget cuts, expanded gun rights and the defunding of Planned Parenthood. And Democrats have used the filibuster to force Republicans to reduce the scope of some of their biggest legislative achievements.”
www.vox.com
