Member-only story
If Republicans Win the House and Senate in 2022.
What would change?
As always, Washington is in a state of gridlock. Of course, that’s even more frustrating now considering the fact that Democrats have unilateral control of the government, with the majority in the House and Senate and the Presidency as well. Defenders of the Democratic Party — who were insisting leading up to the election that all we needed was unilateral control — are now saying that it shouldn’t even be treated as though Democrats have the power because the majority in the Senate is so slim.
That might be true, but liberals tend to conveniently leave out the fact that Democrats could nuke the filibuster so that bills could pass with a simple majority.
Instead, they have chosen not to, and Joe Manchin has happily made himself the face of the opposition to getting anything done. His excuses as of late have become so flimsy, he’s been reduced to arguing that the American people should trust him that there are ten good Republicans in the Senate. Interesting, since none of them voted for Biden’s Covid relief bill.
Considering that Biden has already slashed his infrastructure bill proposal and even taken prescription drug reform off of the table, one can’t help wondering — since it’s a likely possibility — what it would mean if Republicans took back the House and the Senate in 2022.
Given how the GOP is essentially being allowed to run the show now, it really doesn’t seem as though much would change.
All throughout the past election, we were told of the importance of giving Democrats control. Well, what are they doing with it? If Democrats don’t nuke the filibuster, this legislative session is all but over. Is a single Covid relief bill going to carry Biden and the Democratic Party all the way through to re-election in 2024? My guess is probably not, especially considering the Democrats are allowing the voting rights bill to be held hostage.
To be clear, I am NOT saying that everything would be the same if Republicans controlled the House, Senate, and the Presidency. Simply put, Republicans would actually ram their agenda through if they had all three, which the Democrats fail to do. But what if Biden had the Presidency, while the GOP had the Senate and the House? What, exactly, would be different? It would be as gridlocked as it is right now, and the GOP would be dictating the legislation exactly as they are currently able to.
After all, as Biden said, nothing will fundamentally change under his leadership.
I’m not at all trying to minimize the threat of the Republican Party, but rather highlight how ineffective the Democrats are proving themselves to be. The American people have Democrats control for a reason, and it wasn’t for them to sit on their hands with unilateral control telling us there’s nothing they can do. A message, unfortunately, that is exactly what we will hear if the GOP takes back the House and Senate.
