Alexander Derides Efforts to Rein in Filibusters

The brazenness of the Democrats’ effort to end the filibuster in the Senate would only increase partisanship and result in bad legislation being passed into law, according to Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. In a speech Tuesday at The Heritage Foundation, Alexander argued that curbing use of the filibuster is nothing more than “a naked power grab” by Democratic leaders who have defended its use in the past, The New York Times reports.

“Those who want to create a freight train running through the Senate today, as it does in the House, might think about whether they will want that freight train in two years when the freight train might be the Tea Party Express,” Alexander said of the attempt to limit debate over controversial legislation.

“Voters who turned out in November are going to be pretty disappointed when they learn the first thing some Democrats want to do is cut off the right of the people they elected to make their voices heard on the floor of the U.S. Senate,” he added.

“In the November elections, voters showed that they remember the passage of the healthcare law on Christmas Eve, 2009: midnight sessions, voting in the midst of a snow storm, back room deals, little time to read, amend or debate the bill, [and] passage by a straight party line vote. It was how it was done as much as what was done that angered the American people.”