2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren calls for ending Senate filibuster rule

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Senator and 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on Friday called for eliminating a Senate filibuster rule for legislation when the next Democrat takes over the White House.

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The rule for legislation requires 60 votes to end debate on bills before the Senate. Ending the filibuster would lower that threshold to a simple 51-vote majority.

“When Democrats have the White House again, if [Republican Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell continues to put small-minded partisanship ahead of solving the massive problems facing our country, then we should get rid of the filibuster,” Warren said on Twitter.

Warren’s call to ditch the rule, announced in a series of tweets Friday morning, mirrored remarks she was expected to make later on at civil rights advocate Al Sharpton’s National Action Network conference in Manhattan.

On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., rammed a rules change through the Senate, slashing debate time on most of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees.

The new rules limit debate on most nominees to two hours instead of 30.

McConnell has been opposed to killing the filibuster rule for legislation.

Warren, in excerpts of her speech shared with CNBC by her 2020 campaign, also called for a “constitutional amendment establishing a nationally-recognized right to vote — and a right to get that vote counted.”

And she dove into the details of her universal childcare proposal, which would build upon existing programs like Head Start and raise pay for childcare workers.

“Childcare workers are educators, not babysitters. They deserve a livable wage,” Warren said.

Warren tied the plan to her already-proposed tax on the super-wealthy, dubbed the “ultra-millionaire” tax. It would slap an additional 2% tax on Americans with more than $50 million in assets

“That one change,” she said, “would bring in all the money we would need to completely cover the cost of this universal child care and early education plan—and have $2 trillion left over.”

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