Lankford responds to Schumer's Senate Rules threat

Lankford Responds to Schumer's Senate Rules Threat

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) issued the following statement on Senator Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) threat to override Senate rules to bend to his progressive legislative agenda:

“Schumer’s threat to change the rules of the Senate unless he gets his way is not just a temper tantrum; it is a threat to our Republic. For over two centuries, the Senate is the one place in our government where minority opinions have a voice, unless Senator Schumer gets his way. In 2017, 32 Senate Democrats signed a letter saying that the filibuster should not change—27 of those Democrats are still in the Senate. Now that they are in power, they want to do whatever it takes to pass their progressive legislative agenda by changing the historic rules of our Republic.

1889 Institute: What GameStop can teach us about Good Governance

What GameStop Can Teach Us about Good Governance

by Mike Davis (1889 Institute)

The law doesn’t govern most interactions. Everyone gets in line at the grocer; that’s what we’ve always done. We rely on unwritten rules of fair play, trusting they will be observed. What happens when we rewrite those rules? Escalating rule-changing that makes everybody worse-off. The recent kerfuffle with GameStop is illustrative, and it should serve as a warning to those willing to erode governmental traditions for short term wins.

Robinhood, a website that lets users trade stocks without a per-trade fee, froze its trading of GameStop and other highly-volatile stocks. The everyman Robinhood traders were locked out, while elites still had access through traditional hedge funds. Outrage was swift, and Robinhood reversed its decision.

But these actions didn’t happen in a vacuum: GameStop was volatile because of a targeted attack– a short squeeze. Many hedge funds were short-selling GameStop and other stocks that have been hit hard by lockdowns. Short selling, in very simple terms, is a bet that the price of a stock will go down. If it does, the short-seller makes money. If it goes up, they lose money. A group of Robinhood traders bought shares of GameStop, driving up the price. Hedge funds lost billions of dollars. Traditional brokerages seemingly have a justifiable bone to pick. But do they?

Cruzing along to defund ObamaCare

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has been speaking on the Senate floor for over 18 hours to defund ObamaCare. Watch him live on C-SPAN here.

Among the senators joining Cruz on the floor and asking questions (to give him a brief talking break) are Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Pat Roberts (R-KS), and Mike Enzi (R-WY).

Rand Paul Filibustering on Senate Floor

Right now, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is waging an old-fashioned, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington-style filibuster on the Senate floor. Paul is stalling the vote to confirm John Brennan as the new CIA Director.

Sparking Sen. Paul's move is Brennan's involvement with the administration policy relating to drone strikes on terror targets - specifically killing American citizens inside the United States. Read more here.

Watch live on C-SPAN.

Sen. Paul began his filibuster by saying he would speak "until [he] can no longer speak." The Senate filibuster record, held by Strom Thurmond, is 24 hours and 18 minutes.

Of Oklahoma interest, Rep. Jim Bridenstine is among a small core of conservative House members who have joined Sen. Paul on the Senate floor as a move of moral support (not being Senators, they cannot speak, but they do have access to the Senate floor).

Several senators continue to help Sen. Paul in his filibuster, by asking lengthy "questions" to give Rand time to rest his voice. Among them are Ted Cruz (R-TX), Mike Lee (R-UT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Marco Rubio (R-FL), John Barrasso (R-WY), and Jim Moran (R-KS).