Raskin on Past Filibuster Opposition: ‘We Don’t Need a Procedural Fix at This Point’

On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Inside Politics,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) responded to a question on his past support for abolishing the filibuster by saying that “We don’t need a procedural fix at this point.”

Host Dana Bash asked, “One of the things that he has been talking about for the last couple of days more intensely is getting rid of the filibuster. That’s actually something that you wanted to do when Joe Biden was president and things weren’t getting through the Senate. So, is that an area where you agree with him?”

Raskin responded, “We don’t need a procedural fix at this point. We need the Republicans to recognize that there’s a healthcare crisis they’ve imposed on the country. Millions of people are facing the loss of their health insurance because of the skyrocketing premiums under Trump and the end of the ACA tax credits. We need to restore those credits, and we need to restore millions of people to Medicaid that were thrown off when they passed a trillion-dollar cut to health care in America, while they gave a trillion-dollar tax break to the wealthiest people. That’s why we’re seeing a clean Democratic sweep across America.”

Bash then cut in to follow up, “So then, you wanted the filibuster to be ended when Biden was president. But now, no?”

Raskin answered, “I’m not in the Senate, so I’ve got no say in that, right? And I would just say, they need to come to the table, reopen the government, restore the health care to people, save the SNAP benefits of the people. We’re talking about 41 million people that Trump and his team were just willing to throw to the wolves in terms of their food benefits in the month of November. Luckily, Democratic [attorneys general] went to court and shut them down. We got two rulings on that. So, people understand the class war that Trump is waging against the vast working middle class in America. And that’s why you’re seeing these results across the country.”

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