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Dear Friend,
Senate leadership just announced a deal on the debt ceiling—that only lasts two months.1
Make no mistake: this is a win for Mitch McConnell. He still hasn’t backed off his threat to filibuster any long-term raise of the debt ceiling, and he’ll be able to play the same card again in December, when constituents’ attentions are elsewhere.
President Biden has said that it’s a “real possibility” the filibuster will change to raise the debt ceiling, and that needs to happen right now. Senate leadership has finally started discussing changing the slavery-era rule—and infamous stonewaller senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema didn’t object.2 We can’t let this non-deal on the debt ceiling stop those discussions. We’ve already sent more than 100,000 constituent emails to the Senate calling for the end of the filibuster, and now we need to turn up the heat.
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After mounting pressure from progressive groups, and total gridlock in the Senate from Mitch McConnell, Biden and the Senate Democrats have finally realized that McConnell is willing to set fire to the economy if they don’t act.
McConnell’s latest deal doesn’t change that basic fact. And we can expect his fellow Republicans to be even less willing to go along with another debt ceiling deal in December.
We’ve known all along how terrible the filibuster is in the hands of McConnell, whether he is in the majority or the minority. He is using the filibuster to prevent a ban of gerrymandering and voter suppression. He’s holding up legislation on gun safety, climate change, and dozens of other progressive priorities, despite the fact that his party lost the last election.
The filibuster was designed to protect slavery and has been used to defend Jim Crow laws and other racist policy. And now it’s being used to hold the country hostage. The vast majority of Democratic senators are in favor of reforming the Senate rules, as is President Obama, and now even President Biden is seeing the light.3,4
But we need holdouts Sinema, Manchin, and the others on the fence to do the right thing for the country. And not just for the debt ceiling vote—for all of the legislation in gridlock.
Will you donate to Demand Progress today?
Thanks for standing with us.
Robert Cruickshank,
Demand Progress
PS: Your contributions keep us nimble and prepared to take on important fights like these as they happen. Will you become a monthly donor to keep our work going?
Sources:
1. CNBC, "Lawmakers have a deal on a short-term debt ceiling increase, Senate Majority Leader Schumer says," October 7, 2021
2. The New York Times, "Biden Calls Curbing Filibuster to Raise Debt Limit ‘a Real Possibility’," October 5, 2021
3. The Washington Post, "Where Democratic senators stand on changing or eliminating the filibuster," August 2, 2021
4. Politico, "Obama calls for end of 'Jim Crow relic' filibuster if it blocks voting reforms," July 30, 2020
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