President Biden said that he would be open to altering the filibuster surrounding the passing of the voting rights legislation. Nonetheless, he was keen to consider that the attempt to reverse the delayed tactics on voting rights might compromise the ability to pass his economic agenda. Hence, Biden waded into the discussion on the elimination of the filibusters at the moment (Liptak). Currently, Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, senators of Arizona and West Virginia, respectively, have been rejecting to the move to alter the filibusters surrounding the passing of voting rights, hence the president has to careful pick on his actions or else his economic agenda may collapse (Liptak). The president’s statements came one day after Republican senators blocked the legislative reforms on voting rights for the third time. The right to vote reforms aimed at subverting the restrictions employed by GOP-led state legislatures towards voting rights reforms since the 2020 elections (Liptak). Biden has fallen short of the backing to eliminate the filibuster, which the opposing political party had set at 60 votes to pass legislation rather than a simple majority.
Get Woke
Having a keen interest in the voting rights legislative reforms, I picked the topic to learn more on why there has been a standstill on voting reforms, especially among the Republican senators. Voting rights legislation reforms, for instance, the sweeping voting right for a very long time, have been opposed by the republicans in the Senate this week. According to Liptak and Colleagues (2021) the Republican senators have been adamant about the voting rights reforms citing a colossal power grab. Nonetheless, based on their previous words and actions regarding voting rights reforms, Republicans’ actions insinuate that they are setting their political advantage forward rather than defending democracy (Restuccia). Most Republican leaders were never impressed that former US President Donald Trump lost an election to the Democrat candidate, Joe Biden. Most of them agonized and lamented over the rigged election to be well situated to install their preferred candidate after elections, which does not favor them even if their candidate loses on fairgrounds. In this scenario, most of the GOP senators are anticipated to block the democratic initiatives meant to protect and strengthen democracy in the United States of America.
Be Woke
It is a real possibility for the Democrats to look into changing the filibuster rules to mitigate the opposition from the Republicans and raise the country’s debt ceiling. When the political gridlock between the Republicans and the Democrats on the voting right reforms is unlocked, the country’s potential for growth and political progress shall sprawl, spurring economic progress in all the states (Restuccia). At the moment, President Biden is focusing on passing his economic plan, which is also good for the country’s progress. Meaning that if he leans fully to the filibusters surrounding voting rights, he will likely lose significant support from the republicans to pass the economic plan.
Moreover, Republican senators have hinted that the country might default on the national debt since they will filibuster it to the end. Ending filibusters on passing legislation and policies can bring relief to the head of state, making it easier to roll out economic development plans for the nation. Many voting rights bills have been blocked by Republican senators, such as the Freedom to Vote Act. The Act would make registration of voters easier, make election days a public holiday, and make sure there is early federal election voting in various states (Liptak). Nonetheless, the political stalemate between the republican and democrat senators denied the country and the citizens such benefits.
Stay Woke
- How can the someone make a complain regarding possible violations of the federal voting rights laws?
- Can citizens enforce voters’ laws?
- Is the presidential economic plan more important than the voting rights reforms?
Works Cited
Liptak, Kevin, and Kate Sullivan. “Biden Says He’s Open to Altering Filibuster on Voting Rights.” CNN, 2021, Web.
Restuccia, Andrew, and Sabrina Siddiqui. “Biden Signals Openness to Ending Filibuster on Some Issues.” WSJ, 2021, Web.