Texas congressman Louie Gohmert says offers by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to eliminate the filibuster are absurd.
"Looking at the offers that Schumer has made, 'Ok, if you want to protect the filibuster, you have to agree to every single thing we want to do,' which we would believe would destroy this Republic, and if you’re not going to do that then we’ll destroy the filibuster. Basically, to avoid being murdered you have to agree to let us kill you," the GOP Representative said Thursday during an appearance on Newsmax TV’s "National Report."
"It’s just absurd the kind of offers being made when we’re talking about the future of the Republic and avoiding becoming totally Orwellian, totalitarian, and I can’t say Big Brother under House rules now, but Big Sibling. Big Sibling is where they want to go. And we’ve even got a Democrat right out the book "1984" say we need a ministry of truth that will write what everybody has to accept as truth. So, these are just strange times right now."
Orwellian is used to describe a political system in which the government tries to control every part of people's lives, similar to what is described in the book, "1984" by George Orwell.
Sixty votes are currently needed in the Senate to debate and pass legislation, a threshold that requires Democrats to have the support of at least 10 Republicans.
Many Democrats want to use their majority to eliminate the filibuster or alter the rules. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that its demise would lead to a "scorched-Earth" Senate.
"This chaos would not open up an express lane to liberal change. It would not open up an express lane for the Biden presidency to speed into the history books," he said. "The Senate would be more like a hundred-car pile-up. Nothing moving."
President Joe Biden in an interview with ABC News that aired Wednesday said he supports changing the filibuster rule back to requiring senators talk on the floor to hold up a bill.
"Aren't you going to have to choose between preserving the filibuster and advancing your agenda?" host George Stephanopoulos asked Biden.
"Yes, but here's the choice: I don't think that you have to eliminate the filibuster, you have to do it what it used to be when I first got to the Senate back in the old days," Biden said. "You had to stand up and command the floor, you had to keep talking."
"So you're for that reform? You're for bringing back the talking filibuster?" Stephanopulos asked.
"I am. That's what it was supposed to be," Biden said.
"It's getting to the point where, you know, democracy is having a hard time functioning," Biden told Stephanopoulos.
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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