MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell said on his Monday show “The Last Word” that Democrats were abusing the reconciliation process to pass President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package.
The Senate parliamentarian ruled Monday Democrats can use the reconciliation process for infrastructure, meaning it can pass with a simple-majority vote.
O’Donnell said, “There’s a quote from a Republican staffer in the Senate reacting to this today, saying, this is an abuse of the process and clearly not what reconciliation was designed to do, but they’re going to go forward anyway. I have to tell you I agree, that completely. It is an abuse of the reconciliation process, as it was designed. But this comes after years of abuse in the Senate by Mitch McConnell forcing the Democrats into this position because there’s no other way to govern in the Senate now.”
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) said, “Yeah, here we go. They don’t have to abide by the rules. When the Republicans are in charge, deficits don’t matter when Republicans are in charge. Then the Democrats come in, and they want everybody to do it differently and not take the advantage.”
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