There are a lot of reasons to work our butts off to return Sen. Raphael Warnock to the Senate in next month’s runoff in Georgia. David Nir lays them out here, but there’s one that’s worth focusing on a little more: “Having 51 seats is a million times better than 50.”
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer spelled some of that out on the Rachel Maddow Show Monday night, spelling out just how committees have been knotted up with the power-sharing agreement he had with Republicans for the last two years. Every committee has had to come up with a power-sharing agreement with Republicans that has made every process of doing nominations and legislation take twice as long as it should.
“You have to go to the floor, get [Vice President] Kamala Harris there and do what’s called a motion to discharge out of committee,” which can create days of delays because of the “debate” time the rules require to get to a final vote when the minority won’t give consent to move to a vote. “If we have 51,” Schumer told Maddow, “there will be no more motions to discharge.”
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Earlier this year, Republicans boycotted a vote on Federal Reserve nominees in the Banking Committee, just as an example. The delay they forced ended up scuttling the nomination of Sarah Bloom Raskin, because the delays gave Wall Street lobbyists enough time to poison the well against her with Sen. Joe Manchin. That’s the extreme consequence of a 50-50 Senate. It’s the day-to-day grind, though, that just having a majority of one can fix, Schumer pointed out. Now, when an executive or judicial nomination is tied in a committee vote, it takes days to get the nomination to the floor.
Then there’s this: “The second thing it does is you can get different bills out of committee much more quickly.” What Schumer isn’t saying is that 51 puts him one step closer to breaking the filibuster that’s preventing the legislation from passing. But it’s true. It’s perhaps less of a priority for the next two years, with the House likely to go to Republicans. They’re not going to be producing much in the way of good legislation, but 51 still gives the majority more options.
Speaking of, Schumer also alluded to the Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema problem he’s been having without saying it in so many words. ”It means it’s a lot easier to get things done. When you have 50 senators, any one senator can say I’m not getting this, this or this,” he said. “When it’s 51, it’s harder to do.” He’s also looking ahead, saying “that extra seat in 2024 keeps the majority.”
Ultimately, he said, “Senator Warnock has been a great person, been a great senator for Georgia.” That’s as good a reason for returning him to the Senate as any: Georgia needs him. They need a Senator who isn’t just a Trump prop and puppet.
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