Senator Schumer

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday dismissed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) threat to go “scorched earth” politics if Democrats abolish the filibuster.  In an interview on “The Late Show,” host Stephen Colbert asked Schumer “what could possibly be more scorched earth than the way Mitch McConnell has just run roughshod for the past four to eight years, really?”  “I mean, isn’t he threatening that if you do this, Mitch McConnell will continue to be Mitch McConnell?”  Schumer agreed.  “We used to call the Senate, when he was in charge, the legislative graveyard,” Schumer recalled. “The House would send over good bills that had a lot of popular support. He might oppose them, fair enough, but he wouldn’t even put them on the floor for a vote.”  McConnell “can do all the threatening and bluster he wants, it’s not going to stop us,” Schumer added.  Colbert asked if McConnell could theoretically “grind things to a halt” as the minority leader in the evenly divided chamber.  “I’m not even going to give this blustery threat credence,” Schumer responded. “We’re going to go forward. Period.”  Well that all sounds good, but will Schumer and the Democrats in the Senate have the guts to do what is necessary to move forward? As long as the filibuster exists in its present form there will never be passage of HR1 or HR4, the voting rights acts.  Similarly immigration reform and the recently passed House bill giving a path to citizenship for the Dreamers will not pass a Senate with the current filibuster.  Sensible gun legislation including expanded background checks has remained a victim of the filibuster for a number of years and infrastructure needs as well as sensible tax laws will never pass with the current filibuster in place.  So, what will Schumer do besides talk?  What will Democrats do besides blame legislative failures on the filibuster?  Both of these scenarios have yet to change.