Mike Lee thought he had a winning strategy to help solve America’s housing crisis.
An unelected Washington bureaucrat had other plans.
And Chuck Schumer raised a fist after one unelected Democrat appointee torpedoed a top GOP Senator’s plan to help millions of Americans.
Harry Reid’s hand-picked official strikes again
Utah Senator Mike Lee crafted what seemed like a common-sense solution to America’s housing shortage.
His proposal would have made millions of acres of federal lands available for sale to address the critical need for affordable housing in Western states.
But Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough – who was appointed by the Senate’s Democrats’ then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in 2012 – ruled Monday that Lee’s provision doesn’t comply with budget reconciliation rules for President Donald Trump’s major tax and immigration legislation.
MacDonough is no neutral arbiter of Senate rules.
She was hand-picked by the late former Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada during Democrats’ all-out effort to torch the Senate’s filibuster rule in order to ram Card Check forced unionism (the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act”) into law for Democrats’ Big Labor boss pals.
Ultimately, Card Check was stopped but Reid was able to pull the trigger on the so-called “Nuclear Option” in order to gut the Senate filibuster and stack the federal bench with Obama appointees.
The move likely resulted in seating of many of the rogue judges now waging lawfare on the Trump agenda but it wouldn’t be without regrets for Democrats.
“[I]n 2013, Democrats were in charge of the Senate and White House, and it was the minority Republicans who were filibustering their judicial picks en masse. So the Democratic Senate Majority Leader, Nevada’s Harry Reid, decided to pull the trigger. The nuclear option was implemented for the first time, and the Senate rules were changed so nominees for cabinet posts and federal judgeships could be confirmed with just 51 votes,” a 2018 CBS report noted.
The CBS report, which was explaining why Trump’s Supreme Court nominees at the time only needed 51 votes, went on to quote Mitch McConnell’s statement when Reid went “Nuclear.”
“Then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said at the time, ‘You’ll regret this, and you may regret this a lot sooner than you think,’" the CBS report went on.
MacDonough had previously advised former-Vice President Al Gore on Senate procedure.
Gore famously presided over the counting of electoral ballots that certified his own loss to George W. Bush in 2000.
The unelected official is now playing an outsized role in shaping President Trump’s budget bill through her responsibility to determine which provisions comply with the Senate’s Byrd rule.
MacDonough has already struck down 32 provisions from the Senate plan during the complex review process that Democrats are using to challenge conservative priorities.
Lee refuses to back down from fight
The Utah Republican isn’t giving up on his plan to help American families find affordable housing.
"Stay tuned," Lee wrote on X Monday evening regarding his revamped proposal. "We’re just getting started."
Lee has already begun working on changes to his public lands proposal to address concerns from hunting and conservation groups, according to a Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee spokesperson.
His revised plan would significantly reduce the amount of federal lands eligible for sale and includes major concessions to his critics.
The new version would eliminate the sale of any Forest Service land and substantially reduce the amount of Bureau of Land Management land eligible for sale.
Lee would also limit the disposal of BLM lands to those within five miles of a population center.
The original proposal targeted less than 1% of federal lands owned by the BLM and Forest Service, specifically avoiding protected areas like national parks and wilderness zones.
Democrats celebrate blocking housing solutions
Environmental and conservation groups largely opposed Lee’s proposal despite its targeted approach to addressing Western housing shortages.
The Utah Republican consistently defended his plan, arguing the targeted lands have little recreation or conservation value but could provide much-needed space for housing development.
Senate Democrats specifically cheered the public lands proposal falling out of the Senate plan.
"Democrats will not stand idly by while Republicans attempt to circumvent the rules of reconciliation in order to sell off public lands to fund tax breaks for billionaires," Democrat Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the Senate’s budget panel, said in a statement.
Merkley’s complaint rings hollow since the tax portion of the Senate plan would permanently extend President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts that lowered federal income taxes for Americans across the board.
The plan also shields certain Americans from taxation on tipped wages and overtime pay.
These aren’t tax breaks for billionaires – they’re tax relief for working families who are struggling to make ends meet.
Bureaucrats block Trump’s agenda
The parliamentarian also blocked other energy-related provisions Monday, including measures to speed up offshore drilling approvals and eliminate Biden-era preferences for renewable energy projects on federal land.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has ruled out overruling the parliamentarian or eliminating the legislative filibuster.
That means most legislation needs 60 votes to pass, giving Democrats effective veto power over Republican priorities.
Lee’s housing proposal addressed a real crisis facing American families in Western states where federal land ownership limits development opportunities.
Instead of working with Republicans to find solutions, Democrats and their bureaucratic allies are blocking every attempt to help Americans achieve homeownership.
The American people elected President Trump and Republican majorities to solve problems, not to be stymied by unelected officials protecting the status quo that’s failed working families for too long.
