Republican worries Trump push a massive mistake — that could 'blow up the Senate'
A bill set to be introduced by the Republican Party could end up hurting the party much more than it does the Democrats.
The SAVE America Act — which would mean voters require a photo ID at the ballot and would also hinder mail-in votes — will likely not pass through the Senate, though President Donald Trump has heavily backed it in the lead-up to the midterm elections.
But the president has claimed he will not sign any further bills into law until his SAVE Act is passed.
Despite support from the House, passing the bill through the Senate would require 60 votes to move it forward because of a filibuster rule. Some GOP members believe in fighting to lower the 60-vote requirement to get the act over the line, but other Repulicans are warning that could tear the party apart.
Trump has called for the party to kill its filibuster to push the SAVE Act through.
But some warned doing so would hurt the Republicans more than the Democrats.
"Most Republicans aren’t interested in changing the rules, warning of the long-term repercussions if Democrats were to return to the Senate majority," MS NOW reported.
"Without the filibuster, a GOP minority would have little power to block, or at the very least influence, legislation."
And GOP. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), speaking to MS NOW, said the move could disrupt an already divided party. "There's no single piece of legislation worth blowing up the United States Senate over," he said.
But others believe killing the filibuster could be worth risking party unity. John Cornyn (R-TX) said, "President Trump’s not going to get any cooperation at all from Democrats for the remainder of his term of office, and once he leaves office, Democrats will do the very best they can to immediately destroy the filibuster.
"So the question is, do we sit on the sidelines and watch them block every common-sense proposal that President Trump or Republicans make, or do we do something about it?"
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI). agreed, and said the threshold for votes would be gone "as soon as they get the chance to," he claimed.
Johnson added, "So what I’m suggesting at this point in time, let’s at least have a vote on the rules." His point was backed by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who added the Democrats would "do it anyway" if they could.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) was more reserved in her comments on the possibility of ending the 60-vote majority requirement. She said, "The practicality of doing it just isn’t apparent to me, simply because as soon as you start talking about amendments, the clock resets, and this will go on week after week, month after month — chew up the rest of the year."