Fix Our Senate Responds to McConnell’s Senate Floor Attacks: You Broke the Senate, and We’re Not Going to Stop Fighting to Fix It

Today, Fix Our Senate released the following statement after Sen. Mitch McConnell went to the Senate floor in an attempt to defend the status quo and attack the activists, advocates, and millions of people across the country who understand that Sen. McConnell is a big part of why the Senate is broken and who are committed to eliminating the filibuster and removing McConnell’s ability to block progress from the minority. 

"Sen. McConnell is clearly scared of losing his ability to block critically-needed job creation bills, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, plans to tackle the climate crisis, common sense gun safety laws, and more – and he absolutely should be,” said Fix Our Senate spokesman Eli Zupnick. 

"Sen. McConnell has personally broken the Senate and changed Senate rules to ensure that his top priorities – confirming unqualified and extreme judges and cutting taxes for the rich – can pass with a simple majority in the Senate, so it’s certainly rich to hear him complain about the millions of Americans who want the Senate to work for the American people, not just his wealthy, special interest donors. 

"More and more people are learning about how Sen. McConnell has broken the Senate and why we need to eliminate the filibuster to fix it, and we appreciate Sen. McConnell going to the Senate floor today to shine a spotlight on his obstruction and the work that needs to get done to stop it.”   

Here’s what we know:

• This year as nearly 200,000 Americans have died of the coronavirus and millions have lost their jobs, McConnell’s Senate has funnelled money to the wealthy and massive corporations, sought corporate immunity for companies whose workers are infected due to unsafe working conditions, and blocked direct aid to working people and state and local governments.
• He changed Senate rules to jam through extreme Supreme Court justices with a simple majority. He has jammed through over 200 lifetime judicial appointments under the Trump administration while Americans wait for urgently-needed aid.
• He used the budget reconciliation process to pass massive tax cuts for the rich with a simple majority, and he tried and failed to use that same process to strip health care away from millions.
• When President Obama came into office, McConnell declared that his highest priority is making him a one term president, and he used the filibuster to do everything he could to delay and obstruct President Obama’s agenda. Now he has called himself the “grim reaper” of progressive policies and his former aides are already predicting that he will use this “playbook” once again if he goes back into the minority.