Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., April 11, 2019. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Adrian Cadiz / Public Domain)
The Republican majority in the U.S. Senate is now apparently poised to circumvent the body's primary interpreter of rules in order to ram through its agenda, according to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Huffpost reporter Igor Bobic tweeted Tuesday that during Sen. Cory Booker's (D-N.J.) record-breaking speech on the Senate floor, Schumer interrupted him to announce that Senate Republicans are aiming to ignore the Senate parliamentarian (who serves at the pleasure of the Senate's majority leader). The parliamentarian's official role is to advise the chamber on standing rules and parliamentary procedure, and alert the majority leader if and when rules are being violated.
"It shows how hell-bent they are on giving tax breaks to the rich, even if it means going nuclear, even if it violates all the norms that they have had, even if it breaks all the promises they have made," Schumer said in his own mini-floor speech.
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"This is a -- just a move that is so, so against what the traditions of the Senate have been about," he continued. "They're afraid to debate them. They're afraid to defend tax cuts for billionaires. They're afraid to admit they're taking away Medicaid from so many Americans. And so they come up with this nuclear option."
Booker responded that Schumer's news was "stunning" and that he couldn't "even think about how to respond." He then asked the Democratic leader to "explain it a little bit more," saying that it seemed as if Republicans were determined to "obscure the incredible tax cuts, the cost of trillions of dollars to our economy [and] blowing up our debt ... so-called fiscal hawks are going to blow it up."
"It shows the people on the other side are only interested not in playing decent, not in playing fair, not in being honest with the American people, but taking money out of the pockets of working people and the middle class and putting it in the hands of billionaires," Schumer said. "Does it not show what our colleagues are really like and what they're after?"
Booker called the news "a further breaking of the Senate in a severe way." He warned Republicans that "when the pendulum swings" that Democrats could similarly ignore the parliamentarian's interpretations of rules to best suit them, should Democrats reclaim the majority in the next election cycle, saying there's "no going back now." He added: "America will regret this day."
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Watch the video of the exchange below, or by clicking this link.