WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans pushed through two of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees Wednesday by changing the rules at the Finance Committee to circumvent a Democratic boycott.
The Republican-led committee approved Steve Mnuchin as Treasury secretary and Tom Price as Health and Human Services secretary once it disposed of the requirement that at least one Democrat be present for the vote.
Claiming they have more questions about both nominees, Democrats have refused to attend committee meetings for two days.
Committee chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) blasted the Democratic snub as a “cheap political ploy.”
“They should be ashamed,” Hatch added after the meeting.
The nominations now go to the full Senate, which is also controlled by Republicans.
Hatch denounced the missing Democrats as “idiots” before all GOP members of the committee voted for the nominees.
“There’s no excuse for what they did yesterday and there’s no excuse for what they did today,” Hatch said.
But the Democrats charged that Price misled the committee on his stock purchases and Mnuchin needed to explain his bank’s role in the financial crisis.
“Senate Republicans had to break the rules and force these two nominees through the committee for one reason: they have no answer for the lies and serious ethics problems of Tom Price and Steven Mnuchin,” said Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Adrienne Watson.
Separately, the Senate Judiciary Committee will try again Wednesday to vote on Sen. Jeff Sessions as attorney general after another delay Tuesday.
Seccretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson could clear the full Senate later Wednesday afternoon.
#1: misterwhite To: Gatlin (#0)
Technically, they suspended the committee rule requiring that at least one Democrat be in attendance before voting to release the candidate to full Senate vote.
misterwhite posted on 2017-02-01 11:55:22 Reply Private Reply
#2: Vicomte13 To: Gatlin (#0)
Nope. They didn't BREAK rules, they CHANGED them. Which they have the plenary power to do.
Majority parties were held in check for over 200 years by things like the filibuster rule and internal Senate rules, but those rules are just that: rules, not laws. They are only enforced by the Senate itself - the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction within the Senate concerning the Senate's own rules.
A few years back, when the Democrats had the majority, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pushed through the "nuclear option" to break the filibuster of some of Obama's appointments. He was warned when he did that that crossing that line, flouting the tradition, breaking the unwritten and unenforceable rule of centuries, would come back to haunt the Democrats.
Time was, when Republicans AND Democrats, in the majority, still respected the traditional rules EVEN THOUGH those rules frequently thwarted their policies. They did not "go nuclear", because once you go nuclear, there is no coming back. Indeed, there is nothing but the goodwill of the majority party to keep the Senate from turning into another majority-vote house, just like the House of Representatives is.
But it was SO IMPORTANT for the Democrats to win some temporary victory then that they plowed forward anyway, ignored the wisdom of the ages. They went nuclear, got their way.
And now that they have lost the majority, the Republicans are following their example and simply changing the rules when the Democrats seek to block them. And there is nothing - not one thing - that the Democrats can do about it. There is no legal recourse. There is nothing but the next election.
If the Republicans act very aggressively and change the rules whenever the Democrats try to slow down or block anything, they can ram through their whole agenda, impose it, swiftly.
And then, with no effective Democrat opposition, we'll have two years to see if the Republicans were right, to see if Trump's ideas work. If they are right and the ideas do work, the Republicans will be swept in with a greater majority.
If they're wrong, then the Democrats will get more seats and perhaps be able to take back control.
No rules were broken - they were changed.
To quote a famous political and military leader from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away: "I have changed the terms of our deal. Pray that I don't change them again." - Darth Vader
Vicomte13 posted on 2017-02-01 13:41:41 Reply Private Reply
#3: rlk To: Gatlin (#0)
Good. If they never show up to vote on anything again, it will be a glorious improvement.
rlk posted on 2017-02-01 15:12:03 Reply Private Reply