Senator-elect Doug Jones isn’t jumping in with his fellow Democrats who want Republicans to scrap their tax reform plans until he can take his place on Capitol Hill.
His shocking victory in Tuesday’s Alabama election will shrink the Republicans’ majority by one vote, which might be enough in Washington’s nip-and-tuck atmosphere to force Democrat-friendly changes.
But the law in Alabama, like most states, requires a cooling-off period before election results can be officially certified, and Jones told the ‘Today’ show on Thursday that he’s fine with that.
‘I’m going to just let that play out. I really don’t have a position on that,’ Jones said, sounding more patient than his future colleagues.
‘You know, with the holidays and everything going on, this is a big deal. I want to make sure it’s done right. So let’s just see how it plays out.’
Democratic senator-elect Doug Jones of Alabama said Thursday that he’s content to sit back and take his Senate seat whenever the time is right – despite his colleagues’ demands that it happen before Republicans can push their tax cut plan across the finish line
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is insisting Jones should be seated before another tax vote is taken
The soonest Alabama’s secretary of state can legally make Jones’ victory official is December 27.
But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other liberal firebrands are demanding immediate results following Tuesday’s special election.
‘I call on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to listen to the people of Alabama and seat @GDouglasJones without any delay,’ Warren tweeted Tuesday night, just minutes after TV networks declared Jones the winner.
Schumber tweeted the following morning: ‘RT if you think Alabama’s new Senator should get a vote on the #GOPTaxScam.’
McConnell has said that Luther Strange, the Republican holding the seat Jones will soon occupy, will stay in place until the end of this year’s legislative session – likely just before Christmas.
Republicans want that much time to pass their final tax bill and get it to Presidnet Donald Trump’s desk.
Schumer cites the 2010 special election winner Scott Brown as a case where Democrats pushed pause on Obamacare voting until he was seated – but history shows that they sidestepped him and used an odd maneuver to make his vote irrelevant
Brown (right), a Republican, had won Democrat Ted Kennedy’s seat in a shocker, momentarily jeopardizing the Democrats’ supermajority when they needed it to pass Obamacare
Elizabeth Warren, a far-left Massachusetts senator, issued her demand just minutes after TV networks projected Jones had won Tuesday’s election
On Wednesday Schumer tweeted that Senate Democrats were ‘calling on Leader McConnell to hit pause on his tax bill, & not hold a final vote on it until Doug Jones is sworn into the Senate.’
‘That’s exactly what Republicans argued when Scott Brown was elected in 2010,’ he added.
Brown’s election neatly parallels Jones’. Now the ambassador to New Zealand, the Massachusetts Republican came to the Senate in a special election following the death of Democratic lion Ted Kennedy.
At the time, McConnell and others – then in a tiny Senate minority – were pushing back against President Barack Obama’s medical insurance overhaul plans and demanded Brown get his seat before a final vote could be taken.
Republicans had just 39 votes at the time. Adding Brown meant 40 of them could launch a filibuster to throw a wrench into Obamacare.
Jones won his seat Tuesday in Alabama over Republican Doug Jones despite a presidential endorsement against him
Republicans squandered their chance to hold on to the Alabama Senate seat after nine different women accused Roy Moore of past sexual misconduct
The Senate had already passed its version of the bill, but would need to hold a second vote once the House of Representatives made changes.
Republicans’ plot to stand in the way was ultimately scuttled when then-majority leader Harry Reid crafted a plan to pass the House’s version through a filibuster-proof process called ‘budget reconciliation.’
At the time it was an unusual tactic; now it’s commonplace, and the Republicans are using the same maneuver to pass this year’s tax cuts.
If they were to hit the pause button and wait for the Alabama election to be certified and Jones to take Strange’s place, the tax bill could die.
That’s what most Democrats want.
Democrats, notably those with presidential aspirations, have called on Mitch McConnell to swear Jones in before moving forward on tax reform
‘We should absolutely not vote on the tax plan until @GDouglasJones is seated. Alabama voters have spoken and we must listen,’ Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley tweeted on Wednesday.
California Sen. Kamala Harris included a petition with her own message, ‘to demand Doug Jones be seated in the U.S. Senate immediately — before we vote again on the tax bill.’
That petition is run by her re-election campaign organization, collecting names and email addresses for future political organizing.
Harris is one of many Democrats in the mix as potential challengers to President Donald Trump in 2020.