By now, I’m sure most of you have seen the utterly reprehensible behavior that took place on the Senate floor in the final hours of the Congressional session. With less than two hours left before adjourning, it was announced that Democrats had done the unthinkable: they had written a massive omnibus bill, over 1,400 pages long, and then sent it to the House and Senate for a vote without allowing any debate on it. In fact, the bill text was not even released to Senators or Representatives until after the vote had been taken and the House adjourned. This is not leadership, this is not democracy, and this is unacceptable.
For the last 20 minutes of the session, every motion, request, and issue raised by Republicans was ignored. We had no access to the bill, we didn’t know what it said, but Democrats pushed it through anyway. They tried to blame the Republican filibuster and said that’s why they pushed the bill through so quickly. But on Saturday, the day before the recess, the Senate had recessed for twice as long as the session. Democrats have complete control over the recess schedule, and Republicans have no say in it. There is no world in which Republicans would be an issue.
I also want to remind everyone that Democrats hold a one-seat majority in the Senate, and that seat depends on the votes of felons who have committed heinous crimes. They have abandoned all integrity this year and corrupted an institution that is supposed to serve the people of Minnesota. Their actions show that they are not interested in the voices of all Minnesotans.
The reality is, the session started in February, and Democrats have three branches. If they were really serious about getting the job done, they certainly could have passed their “priority” bill at any time. They waited until the last minute because they were interested in spending weeks defending Senator Mitchell after she was arrested and charged with a felony. They delayed their bill.
Democrats put their partisan interests above good governance. They were not willing to negotiate on anything, and they had no intention of passing legislation that would benefit all Minnesotans. It is the minority party’s right to raise issues on legislation, especially when those issues directly affect their constituents. We were elected to be the voice of our districts, and Democrats obstructed our work.
This is not democracy. This is one step closer to communism. The ruling party has silenced the opposition and ignored the voices of half of Minnesota. I have never seen anything more disgraceful. There is no excuse for this, and I hope people never forget what a complete disgrace this year has been to our system.
