Democrats May Regret Transforming Senate with Nuclear Option

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Tony Lee:

If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) grants Democrats their wish and uses the nuclear option next week, Democrats, along with the country, may face long-term blowback and unintended consequences. The fallout and chaos would fundamentally transform the world’s greatest deliberative body into a glorified version of the House.

Reid threatened to invoke the so-called nuclear option next week to ram through seven of President Barack Obama’s nominees, including Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Other nominees include those to the National Labor Relations Board.

The Senate requires a two-thirds majority to shut down debate to change the chamber’s rules. Reid would seek to change the rules with a simple 51-vote majority. He could then pass a rule that would end debate on executive-branch nominees with 51 votes instead of the traditional 60.

As has been reported, Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) agreed at the beginning of the 113th Congress that they would not change the Senate rules without “a supermajority as long as Republicans didn’t block the administration’s nominees unless there were ‘extraordinary circumstances.'”

On the Senate floor on Thursday, McConnell (R-KY) took Reid to task saying, “Democrats are gearing up today to make one of the most consequential changes to the United States Senate in the history of our nation. And I guarantee you, it is a decision that, if they actually go through with it, they will live to regret.”

“He’s going to be remembered as the worst leader of the Senate ever,” McConnell said, of Reid. “And it makes me sad… It’s a shame that we’ve come to this.”

McConnell added that the “nuclear option” would “violate every protection of minority rights that have defined the United States Senate for as long as anyone can remember.”

“Let me assure you: this Pandora’s Box, once opened, will be utilized again and again by future majorities — and it will make the meaningful consensus-building that has served our nation so well a relic of the past,” he warned.

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another vet

11 years ago

Reid won’t even produce a budget. He says it’s not important. He is an insult to the Republic. The fact the Republicans couldn’t win back the Senate last year either speaks volumes about the competence of the RNC or just how complacent American people are.

Ditto

McCain Orchestrates Another GOP Surrender

Under the McCain deal, the GOP will provide enough votes to secure the 60 votes needed for cloture and proceed to final consideration of the 7 nominees. In exchange, Reid agreed to replace two current union attorney nominees with two alternative union attorney nominees. McCain’s swift surrender ensures that the “nuclear option” is a permanent fixture of the nomination process.

GOP objections to many of the pending nominations were not minor. The first nomination to be approved under the McCain deal was Richard Cordray to be the first Director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB was enacted under the Dodd-Frank legislation and holds sweeping powers over all aspects of the financial and credit sector. …

…Reid believed that he could eliminate the filibuster for nominations with a simply majority vote. Democrat Sen. Carl Levin on Tuesday said he believed the change required 67 votes and stated he would vote against Reid’s rule change. It would have been better for the GOP to force Reid to vote on the change. Senators would have had to go on record whether they supported Reid or Levin’s interpretation of the rules. With a number of vulnerable Democrats up for reelection next year, a vote could have carried political consequences.

Arizona voters: Why are you not flooding this RINO’s offices with phone calls, letters and emails?