from the Wall Street Journal,  Ending the Filibuster Would Hand Progressives a Huge Victory by Ben Sasse

Here’s the problem. Progressives believe power—that is the government—is the center of life. We don’t. They place more faith in government than we do. They want to make it easier, more “efficient,” to grow the government. So making it easier for government to act when Republicans are in the majority might have consequences we will regret when we are next in the minority.

Consider the three most consequential moments in the growth of federal power in the past century—the 1930s New Deal, the mid-1960s Great Society programs, and the first two years of this administration that brought us, among other things, ObamaCare. All occurred when Democrats had the White House, a majority in Congress and, crucially, supermajorities in the Senate. They could act unimpeded by a Republican minority.

If Republicans eliminate the Senate’s supermajority requirements to pass bills in the name of efficiency, it will guarantee that every time Democrats have the presidency and even a bare majority in both houses of Congress, they will party like it’s 1936, 1965 and 2009. They will grow government, and there will be nothing conservatives can do about it.

Imagine what Democratic majorities could do with no Senate filibuster: cap and trade, a national gun registry, federal abolition of state right-to-work laws, the abolition of secret-ballot union representation elections in favor of card checks, record tax increases. Everything would be in play. Such a Congress could tick off every box on Bernie Sanders’s wish list, and conservatives would have handed them the cudgel to do so.

HKO

Ben Sasse is the most sane voice of the GOP, which currently may not be saying much.  He actually takes an intelligent and historical approach to our constitutional government, and properly warns about the risk of expediency in political affairs.

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