Roy Blunt: “it has been nearly 7 months since President Trump took office. He was sworn in on the steps of the Capitol on January…”

“it has been nearly 7 months since President Trump took office. He was sworn in on the steps of the Capitol on January 20. Our colleagues across the aisle have had, frankly, more than enough time to come to terms with the election results. Unfortunately, they seem to be channeling their disappointment through the confirmation process by engaging in an unprecedented level of obstruction. We spent all this week when the Senate could do no other business on the executive calendar than to confirm three nominees--three nominees of about 500 that need to be appointed by the President. They are there only because the President would want them there. They come and go as Presidents come and go. Many of them have gone. The problem is that their replacements haven't been there. If there is any doubt as to just how unprecedented this drawn-out confirmation process has been, let's look at how it stacks up against the previous administration. We are only a couple of weeks away from August, and Senate Democrats have only allowed us to confirm 52 of President Trump's 216 nominees. That is 24 percent. By the August recess of President Obama's first term, the Senate had confirmed 313 of his 454 nominations, or 69 percent. So we start out with an incredibly slow start, where previous administrations--both the Bush administration and the Obama administration--by the end of the first week, or often by the end of the first day, had most of their Cabinet confirmed.…”