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Headline Roundup August 22nd, 2019

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Defends The Filibuster

Summary from the AllSides News Team

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has written an op-ed published in the New York Times that defends the use of the filibuster in the U.S. Senate. Many Democratic presidential candidates and other Democrats have called for the abandoning of this requirement in order to pass bills with a simple majority. Just last week, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) called for abolishing the use of the filibuster (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/12/opinion/harry-reid-filibuster.html) Senator McConnell and other Republicans see the filibuster as protection against socialist policies that might be enacted under Democratic control of the Senate.

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Mitch McConnell: The Filibuster Plays a Crucial Role in Our Constitutional Order
Mitch McConnell: The Filibuster Plays a Crucial Role in Our Constitutional Order

New York Times (Opinion)

Opinion

Democrats who want to change Senate rules for temporary political gain will rue the day, as they have before.

“You’ll regret this, and you may regret this a lot sooner than you think.”

That was my warning to Senate Democrats in November 2013. Their leader, Harry Reid, had just persuaded them to trample longstanding Senate rules and precedents. Now that some Democrats are proposing further radical changes to the Senate’s functioning, it is instructive to recall what happened next.

To confirm more of President Barack Obama’s controversial nominees, Democrats took...

Open on Mitch McConnell
McConnell rejects Democrats' 'radical movement' to abolish filibuster
McConnell rejects Democrats' 'radical movement' to abolish filibuster

The Hill

News

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is pushing back against the emerging push to abolish the filibuster, saying that Democrats should consider retooling their "half-baked proposals" if they're frustrated by long-standing Senate tradition.

"A Democratic assault on the legislative filibuster would make the nomination fights look like child’s play," McConnell wrote in a New York Times op-ed published Thursday about the rule that requires 60 votes for the Senate to end debate on a bill.

"That’s because systematically filibustering nominees was not an old tradition but a modern phenomenon, pioneered...

Open on The Hill
McConnell offers fresh defense of Senate filibuster, warns Democrats could pass ‘socialist policies’ if they take control
McConnell offers fresh defense of Senate filibuster, warns Democrats could pass ‘socialist policies’ if they take control

Washington Post

News

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) offered a fresh defense of the filibuster on Thursday, writing in an op-ed that Democrats could pass a “laundry list of socialist policies” if they took control of the chamber and the long-standing tradition was dropped.

“Our country doesn’t need a second House of Representatives with fewer members and longer terms,” McConnell wrote in a piece published by the New York Times in which he touted the strong role of the minority-party rights in his chamber. “America needs the Senate to be the Senate.

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Open on Washington Post

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