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The Republican obstruction of unemployment benefits has pushed Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren too far. Warren said, ‘This is the moment when we really have to start fighting back and showing the Republicans it’s not going to work.’

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Sen. Warren went off during an appearance on MSNBC she when asked about Senate Republicans blocking the unemployment benefits extension.

Sen. Warren said,



I think this is still very powerful. This is the moment when we really have to start fighting back and showing the Republicans it’s not going to work, just to continue to obstruct, obstruct obstruct. This issue on unemployment insurance is really not hard. We need to extend unemployment insurance. We have done this many times in the past. We did it during the Bush administration when unemployment gets too high. We do it for those who need it most.

The Democrats proposed this. The Republicans said, ‘Oh yeah, we want to do this, but you need a pay for.” We said, we’ve never needed pay fors in the past. How it is you’re going to pay for it right now, but we sat down we came with pay fors that we could live with. We said we got it paid for. They said, oh no, actually we don’t mean that. We want to do some more amendments. We want to change this. We want to change that.

Are you kidding me? We have people out there who are suffering. We have people who worked hard all of their lives, who played by the rules. And now, they got knocked out during a terrible economic downturn. They can’t get back to a job. They’re applying. They’re working for it, and all of the sudden Republicans are saying, just cut them off. Leave them with nothing.

Sen. Warren wasn’t finished, “I think there’s an enormous frustration, and really just a sense of being appalled. It’s the only word I know. It’s that you really want to look at people on the other side and say, you’re really willing to do this over politics? You’re really willing to cut these people off? To leave them with no money to put food on the table, to keep a roof over their heads, to take care of their children? And right now the Republicans are so caught in playing political games at every single turn. At making sure that everything the president does to get the economy back on track, everything we all do to try to support hard working families gets blocked by the Republicans.”

That was a battle cry. Democratic frustration is boiling over. Harry Reid hasn’t ruled out changing the filibuster rules to only require a simple majority to pass legislation. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent who caucuses with the Democrats, called on Democrats to go nuclear and break the Republican filibuster on extending unemployment benefits. Sen. Warren is now adding her voice of frustration to the mix.

A clear picture is starting to emerge. Senate Republicans are pushing Democrats too far by blocking the unemployment benefits extension. This could be the last straw that forces Democrats to fight back by changing the Senate rules to only require a simple majority (51 votes) to pass legislation.

Thanks to Mitch McConnell campaign of obstruction, the environment in the Senate has never been as toxic as it is today. Frustrated Democrats are being pushed to the edge, and Elizabeth Warren’s call for Democrats to fight back is a sign that they are getting ready to go nuclear again, and end the Republican filibuster of legislation.

Warren is right. It’s time to fight back, and the best way to do that is to end the Republican campaign of obstruction.