President Joe Biden has begun expressing his desire for the Senate to abolish the filibuster. The timing is no coincidence. The president ...
President Joe Biden has begun expressing his desire for the Senate to abolish the filibuster.
The timing is no coincidence. The president has spoken in favor of the filibuster as recently as July, the New York Post reported. But now that the filibuster is stopping him from enacting his radical agenda, he has suddenly changed his tune.
According to The New York Times, the most recent filibuster battle stems from a so-called “voting rights protections” package. The set of bills, which includes the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, passed the House on Thursday on a party-line vote.
The package is now set to go to the Senate, which is currently composed of 50 Republicans, 48 Democrats and two independents who caucus with Democrats. The legislation would need 60 votes to overcome the filibuster and go to a full floor vote.
It is incredibly unlikely that these bills would garner that sort of support, especially considering no Senate Republicans have backed them. As a result, Biden said during a Tuesday speech in Atlanta that he would support ending the filibuster if necessary.
Without the filibuster, Democrats would simply need the 50 votes they currently have and the tie-breaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris to send the package through.
Biden planned to meet with Senate Democrats on Thursday and urge them to pass the bills by whatever means necessary, the Times reported. But before he could do so, two of those Democrats spoke in direct opposition to his position.
First, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona said during a Thursday speech on the Senate floor that she would not support ending the filibuster to pass new laws, even if she supported the laws themselves.
“While I continue to support these bills, I will not support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country,” Sinema said.
“The debate over the Senate’s 60-vote threshold shines a light on our broader challenges. There’s no need for me to restate my longstanding support for the 60-vote threshold to pass legislation.”
According to Fox News’ Mike Emanuel, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia followed Sinema’s lead.
“We must never, ever, ever, ever tear down the only wall, the necessary fence, that this nation has against the excesses of the executive branch and the resultant haste and tyranny of the majority,” Manchin said in a statement, according to Emmanuel. “I will not vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster.”
This is an encouraging sign for two reasons. First, the filibuster is an important check no matter who is in power. Even if the situation were reversed and Republicans were the ones with a slim majority, the filibuster would still be necessary.
Second, the bills in question would be catastrophic to the voting system, which underlines just how important the filibuster can be.
According to Business Insider, the Freedom to Vote Act would allow mail-in voting without excuse, restore voting rights to felons and allow votes to count even if they were cast in the wrong precinct.
Meanwhile, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would require “states with histories of discrimination to seek permission from the federal government before enacting new voting rules or redistricting plans,” reversing the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder.
Both of those would undoubtedly damage election integrity, not improve it. The filibuster is the only thing standing between Americans and these radical provisions.
Thankfully, Manchin and Sinema not only kept the filibuster alive, but also effectively killed these bills. It represents a win-win for conservatives.
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