Source: United States Senator for Oklahoma James Inhofe
U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), spoke on the Senate floor yesterday in defense of the filibuster and urged his Democrat colleagues to drop the pursuit of their radical agenda.
As Prepared for Delivery:
This week, Democrats are forcing yet another show-vote on so-called “voting rights” legislation. They claim the right to vote is under attack by states – when that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Ahead of the 2020 elections, everyone from Vice President Kamala Harris to Eric Holder to Stacey Abrams claimed that we were experiencing a wave of voter suppression.
Yet, the facts are clear – and they don’t lie. The Census Bureau reported that the turnout in last year’s election was 66.8 percent, the highest voter turnout of the 21st century. Turnout was higher across all demographics as well, including minorities.
More than 90 percent of Americans think it is easy to vote. More than a third think that the rules should be more strict.
So once you see that the Democrat’s “big lie” of rampant voter suppression is clearly false—why are they pushing this election takeover bill?
They want to nationalize elections – putting the federal government in charge of something the Constitution has left to the states.
Just a few examples of what the bill would do: line the pockets of candidates with taxpayer dollars, restrict common-sense voter ID -supported by over 75 percent of Americans, mandate mail-in ballots, allow ballot trafficking (that’s when unsupervised political operatives collect and submit absentee ballots) and would make Election Day a federal holiday – costing taxpayers a whopping $818 million every year its observed.
You don’t have to take my word for how radical this is – Oklahoma’s State Election Board Secretary has called their legislation a “recipe for chaos.”
Democrats can feel the American people turning against their agenda so they are desperate to rig elections in their favor and they will do whatever means necessary – even killing rules that make the Senate the Senate.
This would poison bipartisanship and compromise in the Senate forever.
My Democrat colleagues want you to forget they were for the filibuster before they were against it – just five years ago, 33 Senate Democrats, including then- Senator Harris, penned a letter in defense of the filibuster.
But now, they’ve changed their mind which means they either have amnesia or they see an opportunity to force their radical agenda on American families.
If Democrats get their way on the filibuster, it won’t stop with taking over our elections– they will also pass the Green New Deal, abortion-on-demand, amnesty, and pack the Supreme Court with activists to uphold their unconstitutional agenda.
I want to close by sharing a comment on the filibuster: “Getting rid of the filibuster has long-term consequences. If there is one thing I have learned in my years here, once you change the rules and surrender the Senate’s institutional power, you never get it back.”
Now, I didn’t say that. President Joe Biden said that, and it might be the first time we agree on something. Likewise, Sen. Schumer also said that getting rid of the legislative filibuster would be “a doomsday for democracy.” I happen to agree with him on that too.
I’ve served the people of Oklahoma in the Senate longer than anyone, and I feel strongly that the one thing that has protected our democratic republic and ensure bipartisanship more than anything else is the Senate’s protection of the voice of the minority.
I will continue to protect it, and I urge my Democrat colleagues to do the same.