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Op-Ed: Sen. Rick Scott

January 13, 2022

I’ve only been in Washington for three years, but one thing I’ve noticed is that career politicians seem to coincidentally forget everything they’ve said in the past. It happens in Congress all the time, but the flip-flops we are seeing from Senate Democrats right now on the filibuster is a case study in career politician amnesia. 

This serious affliction is even affecting former Senators, like Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. It demands the attention of every American as Democrats attempt a hostile federal takeover of American elections

For decades, the legislative filibuster has served as a defining rule of the United States Senate. The filibuster requires a 60-vote threshold to end debate on pending legislation, protects the minority party’s rights, fosters bipartisan cooperation and safeguards the interests of millions of Americans. 

The filibuster is essential because it guarantees consensus. Now, this commonsense and necessary part of the Senate is under attack by radical liberals vying to push a socialist agenda on the American people.

Here’s what’s strange (or not so strange, if you know how things work in Washington).  So many Senate Democrats who are fighting to eliminate this long-standing rule were once, and in most cases very recently, its most vocal supporters.

For decades, Democrats defended the filibuster as a vital and necessary rule to protect minority party rights. Now that Democrats have the majority, too many only care about one thing – radically transforming America and doing whatever they can to hold on to power.

Let’s take Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., as an example. In 2005, Schumer said eliminating the filibuster would, "turn what the Founding Fathers called ‘the cooling saucer of democracy’ into the rubber stamp of dictatorship." More recently, in 2017, Schumer urged then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to, "find a way to build a firewall around the legislative filibuster, which is the most important distinction between the Senate and the House."

Today, the same senator who called the filibuster the most important distinction between the Senate and the House is turning his back on it.

Of course, Schumer isn’t the only one caught in a bind here by previous statements and actions. While President Joe Biden has cozied up to the idea of nuking the filibuster to pass the Democrats’ radical election takeover bill, that wasn’t always his position.

Biden’s newfound anti-filibuster attitude is a 180-degree shift from the position he fiercely defended as a U.S. senator. In 2005, then-Sen. Biden said, "the Senate ought not act rashly by changing its rules to satisfy a strong-willed majority acting in the heat of the moment." He called eliminating the filibuster, "a fundamental power grab." Interestingly, this is a position he reaffirmed just last year.

So why the change of heart? Why are Democrats willing to be so blatantly hypocritical and flip-flop in such dramatic fashion?

The answer is simple. Democrats want to do whatever it takes to keep themselves in power. That’s why they’re pushing a bill that would completely upend our current election system. They know if they pull this off, and pass their radical, dangerous bill to federalize elections and gut Voter ID laws across the country, it will effectively secure their hold on power in Washington.

Democrats say this is about "voting rights." It isn’t. That’s just a lie. The right to vote is more readily accessible and easily exercised by eligible voters across our country than ever before.

This is really about federalizing our elections and enacting policies they think will give radical Democrats an advantage in future elections. 

Nothing that the Democrats are doing in this terrible bill is about "protecting democracy." Their bill – more aptly titled the Corrupt Politicians Act – completely erodes a state’s ability to confirm an individual’s identity before they cast a ballot. It mandates ballot drop boxes, which invite ballot harvesting and ballot tampering. And in its most wasteful provision, this bill lets politicians and candidates spend your federal tax dollars to run attack ads and campaign for Congress. It’s a disgraceful distortion of America’s elections systems and standards.

Democrats can posture all they want, but the American people see them for what they really are – self-interested, power-hungry career politicians.

Republican Rick Scott represents Florida in the United States Senate. He is a former Florida governor.

Read more: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/biden-and-schumers-shameless-filibuster-hypocrisy-sen-rick-scott