Filibuster
Floor Speech
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Mr. YOUNG. Mr. President, in a letter written in 1789, Thomas Jefferson declared that the ``earth belongs to the living, not the dead.'' Relationships between generations, he explained, are but that of a distant set of independent nations.
Mr. President, I don't know how many of my Democratic colleagues still admire Mr. Jefferson, but they are certainly taking his words to heart. There is little concern on one side of this Chamber about the impact of our actions beyond our own time here. There is a belief that the importance of this hour's partisan ambitions outweighs the value of centuries-old institutions.
Abandoning the 60-vote threshold in order to seize control of America's elections isn't simply shortsighted, it is clueless. It is the exact opposite of what the people who sent us here want.
Back home in Indiana, I hear from anxious Hoosiers because these are anxious times. I know what is on their minds--rising inflation, the cost of putting food on their table and gas in their tanks. I hear from them about paying to heat their homes. Many are struggling to pay next month's rent.
They are tired of and still worried about a pandemic that President Biden promised to shut down, and they are angry. Many are angry about a southern border that this President has left wide open.
In the middle of all this--an affordability crisis, an ongoing pandemic, a broken border--changing the Senate rules to nationalize Indiana's elections, to repeal popular voter ID laws, to use tax dollars to fund political campaigns are not high among Hoosier priorities or the priorities of the American people.
Do you know what is, though? Congress coming together, finding compromise, actually addressing, in a collective way, our shared national challenges. It is one of the most widely ignored messages of the last election. Every one of my colleagues should take note. If America wanted a radical, extreme, partisan set of changes put forward, they wouldn't have evenly divided the U.S. Senate. Believe it or not, they want us to collaborate, and we have shown them we are capable of doing that.
Let me remind my colleagues, we formed a united front against China when it comes to competitiveness and trade policy. We helped American workers and small businesses hurt by the pandemic. We gave our troops a pay raise. Now, these and so many other achievements are really important. They are achievements that will benefit Americans now and in the years to come. We need to do more working together.
Now, look, I have been around here long enough. I understand that my Democratic colleagues are frustrated. I say to my colleagues, you have had less success with your reckless multitrillion-dollar social spending bill than you would like. I understand that. Your proposal to federalize and politicize American elections has been a tough sell. I understand that.
As a result, America's democracy, we are told, is in peril, and the only way to save it is to kill the 60-vote threshold. But the 60-vote threshold is not the source of our Nation's dysfunction. I say to my colleagues, your Democratic radical agenda is driving much of the angst, the anxiety, and the frustration among the American people. The so-called legislative filibuster is not a threat to our democracy; ending it is.
My advice is to rethink your priorities. If you want to end gridlock, do the difficult work of actually building coalitions of support: introduce bills to be referred to the committees of jurisdiction that Republicans can actually vote for, allow for an open amendment process as we did with the China bill.
Now, this is the entire point of the 60-vote threshold. It is a forcing mechanism, during fraught times like these, that gives the minority a say in the process. It forces majorities to find ways to compromise. It incentivizes bipartisan collaboration among Senators representing diverse parts of our Nation with differing values, differing priorities. Americans want us to go through this hard work of finding common ground, of reconciling our differences. That is our job. And, yes, it is an obstacle to simple majority rule. It is an obstacle to one party--either party--razing our institutions by the slimmest of margins. But need I remind my colleagues, this is not a direct democracy, this is a republican--small ``r''--form of government.
Frustrating as it may be, the filibuster, in its way, is a source of and sometimes the source of order and even unity in Congress.
Now, if you think our current political division is troubling, colleagues, torch the filibuster, foist your unpopular partisan priorities on all Americans, and then check the health of our democracy. Pour gasoline on this raging fire. Don't be shocked by its sorry state after you do so.
I will close with a familiar caveat. Majorities, no matter their size, never endure. Looked at in the light of human history, all of us, even the most long-tenured, are here for a little more than a hiccup in time. Yes, what one party sows today, the other will of course reap tomorrow. Clearing the path for every grandly ambitious Democratic priority aimed at reshaping our country would only clear the way for a future Republican effort to repeal and replace it with one of our own, with even greater scale.
Beyond this, though, as much as I admire Thomas Jefferson, I do not believe that the Earth belongs only to the living. No. Citizens place both their trust and their destiny in a set of shared institutions. In America, this forms a compact that stretches across centuries and generations. It includes those in the grave and those yet unborn. And for the moment, we--Republicans, Democrats, Independents--we are its custodians.
If we give in to temporary passions, if we tear our institutions to shreds rather than work through them to serve the people, rewriting the rules when we don't win the game, we are failing in our jobs. We are breaking that compact.
So, as I said in my first speech on this floor, standing right over there--and I will repeat it until my last speech--we are, above all else, the custodians of the common good--the common good. Remember that, colleagues, before you take a hammer to one of the Senate's signature means of advancing it.
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