Written by: Nathaniel Mannor
On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said that Senate Democrats would not use reconciliation to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government through December 3rd. Schumer explained that “Now in solving this crisis, this body cannot and will not go through an unpredictable drawn-out process sought by the minority leader. … To do this through reconciliation requires ping-ponging separate bills back from the Senate and the House.”
Reconciliation allows the majority party in the Senate to bypass the filibuster, lowering the threshold from 60 yes votes to a bare majority (50+1). Given that the Democrats only have a majority thanks to Vice President Harris, reconciliation is the only way Dems can push their radical agenda through.
While they aren’t resorting to reconciliation to increase the debt ceiling, they are trying to eliminate the debt ceiling. The House recently passed a bill to suspend the top until further notice, but Senate Republicans blocked the radical measure. “There is no chance, no chance the Republican conference will go out of our way to help Democrats conserve their time and energy so they can resume ramming through partisan socialism as fast as possible,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said.
As it stands, there is no plan to refund the government until the December deadline, triggering a government shutdown as a result. It’s easy to point fingers at Republicans for this action, but let’s not forget it was the Democratic party that caused the most prolonged shutdown in history because they refused to fund President Trump’s border wall. The truth is that both parties want to cut spending, but only the Democrats wish to defund our border, our military, our allies, and our police, the very people who ensure our safety.
Photo from: AP
