Washington, DC — Iowa Republican US Senator Chuck Grassley fears Democrats in the chamber are trying to use the “nuclear option” of eliminating the Senate’s 60-vote threshold.
Grassley reminds us it doesn’t take 60 votes to pass laws, but it does take 60 votes to stop debate in order to proceed to passing laws. He says getting rid of that 60-vote requirement would bring disaster.
Since the nation was formed, Grassley says it’s always been state laws governing who could and couldn’t vote — with the only exceptions being the Constitutional amendments that granted voting rights to blacks, women, and people 18 and older.
Democrats have a laundry list of what he calls “divisive, partisan policies” which Grassley says “could rocket through the Senate without amendment or debate.” He says the Senate is the “only place where minority views can be respected,” noting, the 60-vote margin has long driven Senate compromise.
Grassley urges Democrats to “uphold the rights of the minority” because one day, they won’t be in power, and “they’ll be sorry.”
