Senate Republicans are currently debating whether to use a “talking filibuster” to pass the SAVE America Act. But while some in the GOP are worried about preserving the Senate’s long-standing rule requiring 60 votes to pass most legislation, Democrats have already signed its death warrant.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has now been shut down for more than five weeks, leading to excruciatingly long TSA lines at major airports and tens of thousands of federal workers going without pay. Democrats forced the shutdown back in February by using the filibuster. They threatened to shut down the entire government to block funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) because they oppose the Trump administration’s enforcement of immigration law.
To avert a government-wide shutdown, Republicans sliced off DHS funding, and Democrats provided the necessary votes to fund the rest of the government. Since then, Democrats have refused to budge on any deal that includes one penny for ICE. The shutdown is causing massive headaches for Americans – and is imperiling national security to boot – but Democrats are downright giddy about it.
The mainstream media has entirely missed what a seismic moment this is in American politics. There have been whole or partial government shutdowns due to the minority party using the filibuster before, but this is something different entirely.
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