At least that’s how The left would propagandist what happened Wednesday.
Republican Senator Pat Toomey introduced an amendment to the to the bill now being debated to extend unemployment benefits. That amendment prohibits such benefits going to people making over $1 million a year.
The amendment was ruled out of order, since Reid doesn’t allow Republican amendments. Toomey, however, may have figured out a way around Reid’s scheme to run the Senate like a banana republic. To Reid’s surprise:
…Toomey appealed that order, which under the arcane Senate rules he is allowed to do. So what did Democrats do? At Reid’s demand, they started filibustering the appeal, which prohibited a vote in order to preserve Reid’s prohibition against Republican amendments.
The significance of what Toomey did was to demonstrate that no one senator may block amendments in the Senate like the Rules Committee does in the House. If senators can do it once, they can do it again, and again and again, forcing votes on amendments to must-pass legislation, in the process essentially ending the majority leader’s ability to block Republican amendments.
When the Democrats eventually lose majority power in the Senate, they are going to rue the day the decided to turn it into a partisan despotism.
