Shake the 2020 Blues and Look to 2022
There is also still a lot of justifiable anger over last November and the rather fantastical processes that followed.
All of the above is understandable but potentially dangerous because attention is being diverted from the most important and attainable goal for the GOP: winning the House back in 2022.
This column is going to be another tough love affair that will no doubt leave plenty of people annoyed with me. As you are all very well aware by now, I don’t care. This isn’t a drum circle bonding retreat, this is politics and we don’t need to be here for the hugs.
Let me be very clear about this before everyone rushes to the comments to stomp their feet and “Harumph!” all about the place: the anger over 2020 is righteous and understandable but it needs to be turned into fuel for the future rather than remaining an anchor in the past.
The way that it remains the heaviest of anchors is for conservatives to use what happened in the 2020 election as justification for resignation about the future. I’ve heard a lot of variations on “The GOP didn’t fight hard enough, I’m done with them!” lately.
No, you’re not. When Kamala Harris and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are the 2024 ticket for the Democrats, you’re not going to be wasting a protest vote. You’re going to get a Republican elephant tramp stamp and knock on doors until your knuckles bleed for DeSantis/Noem or Noem/DeSantis.
So let’s stop pretending.What went on in 2020 has to be the impetus for election reform that — let’s face it — this country has needed for a very long time. This is a moment that needs to be seized and utilized. If conservatives don’t go all-out to try and affect election reform in the many states currently under Republican control (looking at you, Georgia) the Democrats will finally succeed in their ongoing efforts to federalize the process.
When that happens, the nightmare you THINK you’re living under right now will become a reality. Trust me, you’re going to be awash in regret if that happens.
I could keep haranguing the surrendering attitude but I should probably move on to something resembling positive reinforcement here soon.
As I and many others have noted, the circumstances right now are not unlike those of 2009. Democrats had all the wind at their backs then and Republicans were you-know-whatting into that wind. The defeated mood on the Right was strong and — just like now — understandable. There was also a lot of consternation about election integrity back then. This isn’t exactly a new worry for conservatives.
Democratic strategist James Carville was so euphoric that he was hurriedly writing a book he would publish that spring which predicted that Democrats would “rule” (yeah, they’re creepy over there) for forty years.
Joe Biden is attempting to inflict damage at a far faster rate than his old boss did, focusing only on executive orders to get things done. His handlers are driven by an unholy lust that seeks to undo everything President Trump did. It’s a scorched-earth approach that doesn’t care about collateral damage — the Democrats never do — and will leave an already pandemic-weary nation feeling even worse.
The only firewall free citizens have against complete domestic annihilation is a Republican takeover of the House in 2022.
Along the way, we most definitely need to address the “irregularities” that plagued the 2020 election. The GOP also needs to make sure that it hustles like it never has before to get out the vote (GOTV) and counter any Democratic chicanery. Unfortunately, GOTV efforts now have to factor in the mail-in balloting process. Even if Republican state legislatures can rein in the amount of time people are allowed to vote by mail, they’re not going to be able to get rid of it completely. The GOP needs a nationwide effort to make sure that every elderly Republican’s ballot is filled out and mailed in on time.
Conservative Republicans owe it to themselves, the country, and — yes — President Trump to try and get election reform done and then win in 2022. If Republican legislatures fail to achieve any meaningful election reform then — and only then — will it be time to throw our hands in the air and say that we’re done with them.
I brought up the Tea Party movement not because I think it’s time for another incarnation of it, but because I wanted to draw the parallels between then and now. What I was attempting to convey is that the conditions are ripe at the moment to get a jump start on winning in 2022, especially with the idiot Dems throwing all of their energy into impeachment. We don’t need another singular grassroots movement to be victorious next year.
We just need that attitude.
Reconciliation and the Byrd Rule
Democrats plan to use a special legislative process called reconciliation to ram through a radical liberal agenda with a simple majority. But doing so would require violating long-standing Senate rules and is simply ending the filibuster by another name. Here’s everything you need to know about the Democrats’ plans.
What is reconciliation?
Reconciliation is a special legislative process created by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, which allows for quick passage of certain budget-related legislation. According to the Budget Act, reconciliation may only be used for legislation that changes spending, revenues (taxes), and the federal debt limit. In the Senate, provisions that are determined not to affect one of these three issues violate what is known as the Byrd Rule and can not be passed using this special process.
Eligible legislation is not subject to the Senate’s filibuster, does not require the support of 60 Senators, and can be passed by a simple majority. The 51-vote threshold of reconciliation makes it incredibly powerful. Given the current 50-50 split in the Senate, Democrats could pass reconciliation legislation without any Republican votes if all 50 Democrats, plus Vice President Harris, who would cast the tie-breaking vote, support the legislation.
The reconciliation process has been used 21 times to enact legislation, including in 2017 when Republicans used it to pass the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This was possible because tax cuts are directly related to the budget and fall within the scope of reconciliation. However, the far Left now wants to change the reconciliation process rules and allow provisions unrelated to the budget to pass a sweeping liberal agenda (i.e., the Green New Deal, a $15 minimum wage, statehood for DC, and Medicare for All).
What is the process for using reconciliation?
The reconciliation process begins with the adoption of a budget resolution, which sets spending limits for the upcoming fiscal year. This resolution does not need to be signed by the president. To trigger the reconciliation process, the resolution must also include instructions for specific House or Senate committees to develop legislative suggestions to align the law with the budget. These instructions are usually broad and written as general spending or savings goals for each committee’s jurisdiction.
Once individual committees have drafted legislative suggestions, they are assembled by the House and Senate Budget Committees into a single piece of legislation and brought to the floor for a vote. In the House, the floor process is similar to any other legislation. In the Senate, the reconciliation process limits the time for debate on the bill and allows for passage by a simple majority (51 votes), as mentioned earlier. However, to protect against runaway partisanship by simple majorities, the bill is also subject to the Byrd rule.
What is the Byrd Rule?
The Byrd Rule, named after former West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, was established and modified under Senate rules during the 1980s and became permanent law as an amendment to the Budget Act in the 1990s. The Byrd Rule establishes several requirements of reconciliation legislation that, if violated, can stop the House and Senate in their tracks. In practice, it prohibits the party in the majority from using reconciliation to pass policies unrelated to the budget that would typically be subject to the filibuster, requiring the support of 60 Senators for passage.
Senate Democrats now want to completely ignore the Byrd Rule and its precedent, setting the stage for the most radical Left agenda to sail through Congress, despite Republican opposition.
Is there a difference between the Byrd Rule and the filibuster?
Ignoring the Byrd Rule is essentially ending the filibuster by another name. Because the Byrd Rule restricts what kinds of legislation can be passed by a simple majority in the Senate using reconciliation, it serves as an essential protection for the filibuster with the force of law. If Democrats choose to destroy the Byrd Rule by ignoring the precedent, they will be committing an end-run around the filibuster, despite pledges from several Democratic Senators to preserve it. This extreme step has never been taken by any Congress — Republican or Democrat.
Why does all of this matter to conservatives?
If provisions in reconciliation legislation are not subject to the Byrd Rule, there’s no limit to what legislation Democrats can pass by a simple majority. No amount of Republican resistance could stop Democrats from passing sweeping federal gun control legislation or Medicare for All. They could enact the Green New Deal, costing American families an average of $165,000 each, or federalize the election process to give their party a permanent, built-in advantage. Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. could be given statehood to add four reliable Democratic seats to the Senate. Over 11 million illegal immigrants could receive blanket amnesty. The only limiting factor would be the political will of the Democratic Party, which recent rhetoric suggests is hardly a limiting factor at all.
The Byrd Rule is an essential guardian of minority rights in the Senate that has been upheld by both parties when they are in power. Ignoring it to ram through a Democratic agenda would cause the same permanent damage to the Senate and our political system as a whole that ending the filibuster would. Democrats should reject this path and admit that it is just nuking the filibuster by a different name.
Knowledge Is Power: The New Realistic Observer is a non-profit blog dedicated to bringing as much truth as possible to the readers.
Please share… Like many other fact-oriented bloggers, we've been exiled from Facebook as well as other "mainstream" social sites.
Big Tech has greatly reduced the distribution of our stories in our readers' newsfeeds and is instead promoting mainstream media sources. When you share with your friends, however, you greatly help distribute our content. Please take a moment and consider sharing this article with your friends and family.
Keep seeking the truth, rally your friends and family, and expose as much corruption as you can… every little bit helps to add pressure on the powers that are no more.
We will continue to search for alternative sites, some of which have already been compromised, in order to deliver our message and urge all of those who want facts, not spin and/or censorship, to do so as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment