All I can figure is that the Dems thought Obama had ushered in their messianic kingdom. Why else would they give such power to the executive branch?
Now we’ll all pay the price.
As members of the 115th Congress were sworn in, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) said that eliminating filibusters for nominations by the president will hurt his party, adding “wish it hadn’t happened.”
Back in 2013, when they were the majority, Senate Democrats pushed through a reform eliminated filibusters when it came to judicial nominees and executive office appointments, in a move they hoped would fix a broken system.
Under the reform, they triggered the so-called ‘nuclear option’ whereby appointments could be advanced by a simple majority of senators, rather than the 60-vote supermajority that was the standard for nearly four decades. Now, cabinet picks require just 51 votes, although Supreme Court picks still require 60.
“I argued against it at the time. I said both for Supreme Court and in Cabinet should be 60 [votes] because on such important positions there should be some degree of bipartisanship,” Schumer told CNN. “I won on Supreme Court, lost on Cabinet. But it’s what we have to live with now.”
“Wish it hadn’t happened,” Schumer said.