This is a huge loss for the Dems.
Before getting into this, I know most of you are wondering what in the heck a Senate parliamentarian is.
Basically, he or she (oops, just lost some people with binary pronouns there) is the official advisor to the Senate to let them know if they are breaking the Senate rules, which are super complex. Because government is a money-hungry monster that needs a steady supply of your hard-earned income to fund its cocktail parties, the Senate has a process called "Reconciliation" that allows them to bypass some of these rules, including the filibuster, to pass budget items that are essential to keeping the monster running.
In their new $3.5 TRILLION spending bill, the Dems want to remake America, and they thought while they were at it, they'd make it easy for the illegal immigrants pouring over our borders to become citizens and vote those yucky conservatives out of office once and for all.
They would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for that meddling parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough!
The Senate parliamentarian on Sunday rejected Democrats' push to include a pathway to legal status in their social spending plan, a blow to the party's efforts to enact immigration reform.
In the decision, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO, the parliamentarian determined that the Democrats' proposal is "by any standard a broad, new immigration policy" and that the policy change "substantially outweighs the budgetary impact of that change."
It's interesting to note that MacDonough was appointed under Obama in 2012 by Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
And she's actually upholding the law.
Crazy, right??!
Perhaps it's because she not only knows more about the Senate rules than anyone else, but because she was a former immigration attorney and knows the laws we are supposed to follow.
In their arguments before the Senate parliamentarian, a former immigration attorney, Democrats made the case that providing green cards to an estimated 8 million Dreamers, farmworkers, Temporary Protected Status recipients and essential workers during the pandemic had a budgetary impact because it would make more people eligible for certain federal benefits. That, in turn, would increase the deficit by more than $130 billion, according to Democratic estimates.
But the parliamentarian stated in her ruling that providing legal status through reconciliation would also lead to "other, life-changing federal, state and societal benefits" that can't be meaningfully reflected in the budget.
Providing permanent legal status "would give these persons freedom to work, freedom to travel, freedom to live openly in our society in any state in the nation, and to reunite with their families and it would make them eligible, in time, to apply for citizenship — things for which there is no federal fiscal equivalent."
In addition, the parliamentarian rejected arguments from Democrats that there is a precedent for including immigration reform in reconciliation. Democrats frequently pointed to a 2005 GOP-led reconciliation bill that addressed a visa backlog.
Like clockwork, the Left responded to the ruling with grace, humility, and a greater appreciation for the laws that keep the United States a sovereign nation that prioritizes the protection of its own citizens.
With that laugh out of the way, let's look at the actual response:
In a world where the Party is always right, the above tweets make sense.
Ugh, you've got to hate it when our system of checks and balances — which was created to prevent the mob from ruining the nation with hyper-partisan, rushed legislation — keeps the mob from ruining the nation.
HAHA!
NOW the lefties are concerned about unelected officials? Awesome.
Now do the CDC and OSHA.
"Team Dem playing by every rule"
Finally, here was Sen. Majority Leader Chucky Schumer:
As some of the tweets indicated, the parliamentarian only offers advice. Per the rules of the Senate, the Presiding Officer (the Vice President) can harness their inner Emperor Palpatine and dismiss the ruling completely.
That hasn't been done since 1975, however. Then-Vice President Nelson Rockefeller overruled the advice of the Senate parliamentarian about changing the filibuster rules, but the decision was extremely controversial.
Something tells me Kamala doesn't have the political acumen to navigate that type of fire and scrutiny, especially with the border crisis created by her boss!
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