Today marks the 240th day since Donald Trump was sworn in as President and make no mistake, Trump sees the same things we are seeing: RINOs who are more interested in propping up the Obama agenda than working with the President. So, he's fighting back, unleashing a tweet storm on GOP leadership who are more interested in running out the clock on his administration than actually working with him.
"With the ridiculous Filibuster Rule in the Senate, Republicans need 60 votes to pass legislation, rather than 51," Trump wrote. "Can't get [the] votes, END NOW!" He is calling on them to invoke the nuclear option.
This isn't the first time that Trump has dropped the hammer on McConnell and his cronies. Last month, McConnell told constituents during a town hall that the President was suffering from "excessive expectations" to expect the GOP actually to fulfill its promises.
Trump wasn't happy, tweeting out: "Senator Mitch McConnell said I had 'excessive expectations,' but not so. After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?"
The GOP establishment is hiding behind the rules. So, Trump has given them an ultimatum: Change the rules or get out!
McConnell and Ryan are blaming the rules in Congress for the fact they've gotten nothing done. If a piece of legislation has to do with the budget, they can use a process known as "reconciliation" to get it passed in the Senate with just 51 votes. The problem is that you have idiots like John McCain who will pull last-minute stunts and, for example, stop the Obamacare repeal bill from passing.
The only alternative under the current rules is to pass bills through regular order, which means they need 60 votes in the Senate to even make it to a final vote. That means that even if every Republican votes for a bill, which is still unlikely, they still need to get eight Democrats on board for it to pass. Not going to happen.
That is why Trump is calling on Congress to change the rules to lower the threshold to 51 votes for all legislation. If the magic number is lowered to 51, then if Republican Senators John McCain (AZ), Susan Collins (ME), and Lisa Murkowski (AK) vote against a bill, like they did with Obamacare repeal, it would take just one Democrat to bring the vote to a 50-50 tie, which would be broken by Mike Pence.
When Harry Reid ran the Senate, he used the "nuclear option" to lower the threshold to 51 votes for Judicial and Executive nominees. He was tired of Republicans blocking Obama's radical appointments. This year, Mitch McConnell went nuclear and lowered the threshold for Supreme Court nominees to get Neil Gorsuch onto the bench.
Now, it is time to finish this. If Congress doesn't go nuclear now, the Democrats surely will if they ever retake the government. That is inevitable. So, we need to take advantage of the time we have now and get as many Conservative bills passed as possible.
Trump is done playing around. He's demanding that Congress either change the rules or change leadership!
It is absolutely imperative that Ryan and McConnell change the rules to make bills easier to pass. This will mean the difference between taking this country back and leaving Obama's legacy in place.
Take the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act - a major pro-gun bill - as an example. This bill that is now just FIVE votes away from passing in the House. Under the current rules, this would need 60-votes to pass the Senate. Even if every Republican voted for it (unlikely), it would still need eight Democrats to pass. But if the magic number became 51, then even if three GOP Senators voted No, it could pass with just one Democrat.
There are 10 Senate Democrats up for re-election next year in states that Trump won, at least half a dozen in states Trump won by double digits. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) is up for re-election in a state that Trump won by 41.7 percent last year. The state's Democrat Governor just switched parties to become a Republican. What do you think the odds are of Manchin winning if he votes against the biggest pro-gun bill in American history? As long as rules say it takes 60 votes, there's no pressure. Even if Manchin would vote for it, it wouldn't pass unless seven more Dems did as well.
But if Conservative bills needed just one more vote to pass, then it just comes down to leverage. There are Senate Democrats up for re-election next year in West Virginia, Missouri, North Dakota, and Montana. All four of these states' legislatures have voted to let citizens carry guns in public without a permit. Does anyone really think these Democrats could win re-election if they voted against a major Concealed Carry bill like this?? Of course not. But as long as the threshold is 60, they have no pressure to individually break with their party.
McConnell and Ryan are hiding behind the rules. It is time to drag them out of their hiding places and force them to go nuclear!
Years from now, when people ask what we did to save this country, I want the answer to be "everything we possibly could..."
The time is now,
Joe Otto
Conservative Daily
No comments yet - make the first one!