Joe Scarborough boasted on Thursday he's "always been a champion of the filibuster." But now he wants the Democrats to abolish it!
Wasn't Joe supposed to be the mugwump who supported institutions over radical ideology? Now his argument is that because of increased political polarization, there are few moderates left, and thus that "nothing can get done" with the filibuster in place, which in effect requires 60 votes to pass legislation through the Senate.
Try not to laugh at the idea that in a 50-50 Senate, the Democrats have some sort of "majority mandate."
Scarborough was somewhat coy in the way he first phrased things, saying Democrats must "do something significant" about the filibuster. He made his support for abolishing the filibuster more explicit a bit later, saying Democrats must "make sure that 50-plus-one wins the day."
To make his case that very little can get done with the filibuster in place, Scarborough twice pointed to the Trump tax cuts as the only major piece of legislation that has passed in the last decade. (This ignores the massive "COVID relief" package they just forced through.)
And doing his best Bernie Sanders impersonation, Scarborough branded the Trump legislation as "tax cuts for billionaires."
In fact, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation:
- The income tax burden for high earners increased $16 billion to 40 percent of the total owed.
- The income tax burden for middle-class earners decreased by $31 billion to 13 percent of the total owed.
- The income tax burden for low-wage workers decreased by $4 billion to 1 percent of the total owed.
Scarborough should stop his far-left demagoguery. And consider the harm to our country that would occur if by abolishing the filibuster Democrats were able to push through a host of radical ideas on everything from the Green New Deal, opening the borders, gun control, threatening women's sports, etc.
Watch this space if the Republicans retake the Senate in 2022 and Scarborough shifts back again!
Joe Scarborough urging the Democrats to abolish the filibuster was sponsored in part by Mazda.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
3/18/21
6:11 am EDTJOE SCARBOROUGH: I have always been a champion of the filibuster. I didn’t like when Harry Reid got rid of it for federal judges. I didn’t like it when Mitch McConnell got rid of it for Supreme Court judges, but nothing’s getting done in Washington.
. . .
Nothing’s going to get done! Elections are not going to have consequences if they don’t do something significantly.
. . .
I know Joe Biden is a traditionalist, but this ain't 1974. This isn't even 1994 or 2004. If Joe Biden, the president, wants to get anything done. If Republicans that in the Senate want to get anything done when they’re in the majority, they’re going to have to do something dramatic to make sure that 50-plus-one wins the day in the United States Senate . . . It’s just not working, again, when over the past decade, the only major piece of legislation to pass through the House and the Senate and get signed by a president was Donald Trump’s tax for billionaires, tax cuts for billionaires.
