{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=1e709056-6791-4d53-8427-be9da9dd0547", "Senate Dems Want to Change the Subject from Obamacare to Nuclear Option", "2013-11-21", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "KY", "Mitch McConnell", "M000355", "www.mcconnell.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor regarding the Senate Democrats\u2019 attempt to focus on changing Senate rules rather than addressing the consequences of Obamacare:\r\n\u201cOver the past several weeks, the American people have been witness to one of the most breathtaking indictments of big-government liberalism in memory. And I\u2019m not just talking about a web site.\r\n\u201cI\u2019m talking about the way in which Obamacare was forced on the public by an administration and a Democrat-led Congress that we now know was willing to do and say just about anything to pass it into law.\r\n\u201cThe President and his Democrat allies were so determined to force their vision of health care on the public that they assured them up and down that they wouldn\u2019t lose the plans they had, that they\u2019d save money instead of losing it, and that they\u2019d be able to keep using the doctors and hospitals they were already using.\r\n\u201cBut of course now we know that rhetoric just doesn\u2019t match reality.\r\n\u201cAnd the stories we\u2019re hearing on a near-daily basis now range from heartbreaking to comic.\r\n\u201cJust yesterday I saw a story about a guy getting a letter in the mail saying his dog had qualified for insurance under Obamacare. So yeah, I\u2019d probably be running for the exits too if I had supported this law.\r\n\u201cI\u2019d be looking to change the subject just as Senate Democrats have been doing with their threats of going nuclear and changing the Senate rules on nominations. If I were a senator from Oregon, which hasn\u2019t enrolled a single person yet for its Obamacare exchange, I would probably want to shift the focus too.\r\n\u201cBut here\u2019s the problem with this latest distraction. It doesn\u2019t distract people from Obamacare. It reminds them of it. It reminds them of all the broken promises. It reminds them of the power grab. It reminds them of the way Democrats set up one set of rules for themselves and another for everybody else.\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s basically the same debate.\r\n\u201cAnd rather than distract people from Obamacare, it only reinforces the narrative of a party that is willing to do and say just about anything to get its way. Because that\u2019s just what they\u2019re doing all over again.\r\n\u201cOnce again, Senate Democrats are threatening to break the rules of the Senate in order to change the rules of the Senate. And over what? Over a court that doesn\u2019t even have enough work to do.\r\n\u201cMillions of Americans are hurting because of a law Washington Democrats forced upon them \u2013 and what do they do about it? They cook up some fake fight over judges that aren\u2019t even needed.\r\n\u201cLook: I get it. As I indicated, I\u2019d want to be talking about something else too if I had to defend dogs getting insurance while millions of Americans lost theirs. But it won\u2019t work. And the parallels between this latest skirmish and the original Obamacare push are just too obvious to ignore.\r\n\u201cThink about it: The Majority Leader promised over and over again that he wouldn\u2019t break the rules of the Senate in order to change them. On July 14 he went on \u2018Meet the Press\u2019 and he said: \u2018We\u2019re not touching judges.\u2019\r\n\u201cHe may as well just have said \u2018If you like the rules of the Senate you can keep them.\u2019\r\n\u201cThen there are the double standards.\r\n\u201cWhen Democrats were in the minority, they argued strenuously for the very thing they now say we will have to do without, namely the right to extended debate on lifetime appointments. In other words, they believe that one set of rules should apply to them, and another set to everyone else \u2026 just the way so many Democrats in the Administration and Congress now believe that Obamacare is good enough for their constituents, but that when it comes to them, their political allies, and their staffs \u2013 well, that\u2019s different.\r\n\u201cAnd let\u2019s not forget about the raw power at play here.\r\n\u201cOn this point, the similarities between the Obamacare debate and the Democrat threat to go nuclear on nominations are inescapable. They muscled through Obamacare on a party-line vote and didn\u2019t care about the views of the minority. And that\u2019s just what they\u2019re doing here too.\r\n\u201cThe American people decided not to give Democrats the House or to restore the filibuster-proof majority they had in the Senate back in 2009, and our Democrat colleagues don\u2019t like that one bit. So they\u2019re trying to change the rules of the game to get their way.\r\n\u201cThey\u2019ve said so themselves.\r\n\u201cEarlier this year the Senior Senator from New York said they want to \u2018fill up the D.C. Circuit one way or another.\u2019\r\n\u201cAnd the reason is clear. As one liberal activist put it earlier this year, President Obama\u2019s agenda \u2018runs through the D.C. Circuit.\u2019\r\n\u201cIn short, unlike the first two years of the Obama Administration, there\u2019s now a legislative check on the President. And the Administration doesn\u2019t much like checks and balances. So it wants to circumvent the people\u2019s representatives with an aggressive regulatory agenda, and our Democrat colleagues want to facilitate that by \u2018filling up\u2019 a court that will rule on his agenda \u2014 a court that doesn\u2019t even have enough work to do. Especially if it means changing the subject from Obamacare for a few days.\r\n\u201cAnd get this: they think they can change the rules of the Senate in a way that benefits only them. They want to do it in such a way that President Obama\u2019s agenda gets enacted, but that a future Republican president couldn\u2019t get his or her picks for the Supreme Court confirmed by a Republican Senate using the same precedent our Democrat friends want to set. So they want to have it both ways. But this sort of gerrymandered vision of the nuclear option is really just wishful thinking.\r\n\u201cAs the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee put it yesterday: \u2018If [the Majority Leader] changes the rules for some judicial nominees, he is effectively changing them for all judicial nominees, including the Supreme Court.\u2019\r\n\u201cLook: I realize this sort of wishful thinking might appeal to the uninitiated newcomers in the Democratic Conference who\u2019ve served exactly zero days in the minority. But others in their conference should know better.\r\n\u201cLet\u2019s remember how we got here.\r\n\u201cLet\u2019s remember that it was Senate Democrats who pioneered the practice of filibustering Circuit Court nominees, and who\u2019ve been its biggest proponents in the past. After President Bush was elected, they even held a retreat in which they discussed the need to change the ground rules by which lifetime appointments are considered. Then they started holding hearings to justify doing it. They made a big deal about it.\r\n\u201cIt was all a prelude to what followed: the serial filibustering of several of President Bush\u2019s Circuit Court nominees, including Miguel Estrada, whose nomination to the D.C. Circuit was filibustered by Senate Democrats a record seven times. And now they want to blow up the rules because Republicans are following a precedent they set themselves \u2013 and, I might add, we\u2019re following that precedent in a much more modest way than Democrats did.\r\n\u201cSo how about this for a suggestion: How about instead of picking a fight with Senate Republicans by jamming through nominees to a court that doesn\u2019t even have enough work to do, how about taking yes for an answer and working with us on filling actual judicial emergencies, as I\u2019ve repeatedly suggested.\r\n\u201cYet rather than learn from the past precedents on judicial nominations that they themselves have set, Democrats now want to set another one. I have no doubt that if they do, they will come to regret that one as well. Our colleagues evidently would rather live for the moment, and try to establish a story line that Republicans are intent on obstructing President Obama\u2019s judicial nominees \u2014 a story line that\u2019s patently ridiculous in light of the facts. And here are the facts: before this current Democrat gambit to \u2018fill up the D.C. Circuit one way or another,\u2019 the Senate had confirmed 215 of the President\u2019s judicial nominees and rejected a grand total of 2. That\u2019s a confirmation rate of 99%.\r\n\u201cClearly, Republicans have been willing to confirm the President\u2019s judicial nominees. And on the D.C Circuit, we just confirmed the President\u2019s last nominee to that court by a vote of 97 to 0.\r\n\u201cSo I suggest our colleagues take a time-out, stop trying to jam us, and work with us instead to confirm vacancies that actually need to be filled.\r\n\u201cThis rules change charade has gone from being a biennial threat, to an annual threat, to now a quarterly threat. It\u2019s become a threat every time Senate Democrats don\u2019t get their way.\r\n\u201cAnd their repeated promises at the end of every crisis, that they won\u2019t threaten it again, just don\u2019t seem to be worth any more than their promises on Obamacare.\r\n\u201cAnd this Democrat strategy of distract, distract, distract is getting old. Because the American people aren\u2019t fooled.\r\n\u201cIf our colleagues want to work with us to fill judicial vacancies that actually need to be filled, then let\u2019s do it.\r\n\u201cIf our colleagues want to work with us to spare the American people from the pain of Obamacare, then let\u2019s do that.\r\n\u201cBut if they want to play games and set yet another precedent that they will no doubt come to regret, well\u2026that\u2019s a choice only they can make.\r\n\u201cLet me be clear: the Democrat playbook of broken promises, double standards, and raw power\u2026the same playbook that got us Obamacare\u2026it has to end.\r\n\u201cThat\u2019s why Republicans are going to keep their focus where it belongs: on the concerns of the American people.\r\n\u201cIt means we\u2019re going to keep pushing to get back to the drawing board on health care \u2013 to replace Obamacare with real reforms that do not punish the middle class. And we\u2019ll leave the political games to our friends on the other side.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=1e709056-6791-4d53-8427-be9da9dd0547"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3564361725002527, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}