Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy went on a podcast last week and did something Democrats rarely do: he said the quiet part out loud. As USA Journal reported, Murphy openly admitted on the "Nobody Knows Anything" podcast that if Democrats retake the Senate in November, they plan to gut the filibuster and ram their agenda through with a simple majority. Apparently nobody told him the microphone was on, metaphorically speaking.
"And if Democrats gain power, we are going to have to reform the filibuster so we can get our core economic ideas done, or nobody is going to vote for us ever again," Murphy said Friday. He called it "reforming" the filibuster, which is a bit like calling a demolition a "home renovation." Sure, technically the house is different afterward.
Murphy's argument, as RedState also noted, is that Republicans already get to pass their priorities with 50 votes through Supreme Court confirmations and tax reconciliation, so Democrats should get the same deal. What he neglected to mention is that the simple majority threshold for judicial confirmations was a gift from Harry Reid and the Democrats back in 2013, and reconciliation is a limited budget tool with strict rules that both parties have used for decades. But sure, other than those two minor details, his framing is totally honest.
Meanwhile, over on the Republican side of the aisle, things are going about as smoothly as you would expect. President Trump has been pushing hard to kill the filibuster and pass the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship and photo ID to register and vote. Standing at Mount Rushmore on July 4th, Trump put it bluntly: "If we terminate the filibuster as we should do, and immediately vote for the SAVE America Act, then we will not lose an election for 100 years."
The problem? Republicans hold 53 Senate seats and somehow cannot scrounge together 51 votes to pass the thing. Senators McConnell and Murkowski have reportedly been working to torpedo the effort, and at least two other Republicans remain holdouts. Having a 53 seat majority and failing to pass your president's top priority is the legislative equivalent of showing up to a layup contest and tripping over your own shoelaces.
Byron Donalds has said publicly what most people watching can see: the Senate is broken and Republicans are squandering a historic opportunity while the clock ticks toward the midterms.
Here is the situation in its simplest form. Democrats have now announced, on the record, in plain English, that they will eliminate the filibuster the moment they get control. They are not being coy about it. They are not hiding behind vague language. Murphy literally spelled it out on a podcast. Republicans, meanwhile, are clinging to the filibuster like it is a family heirloom, apparently content to preserve it just long enough for Democrats to smash it and use the pieces as confetti at their victory party.
The irony is thick enough to spread on toast. One party is telling you exactly what they plan to do. The other party is standing there with 53 seats and a blank stare. If Republicans lose the Senate and then watch Democrats torch every procedural norm they spent years protecting, they will have nobody to blame but themselves. The warning was not subtle. It was on a podcast.
Read more conservative news commentary at: USA Journal News
