Orrin Hatch: “You got that right. Mr. McCONNELL. We are hoping for a better century in the 21st century. But it was mostly our party.…”

“You got that right. Mr. McCONNELL. We are hoping for a better century in the 21st century. But it was mostly our party. So there had to have been temptation, from time to time, and frustration, on the part of the minority. Seventy percent of the time, in the 20th century, they could have employed this tactic that was used in the last Congress but did not. Senator Byrd led the minority during a good portion of the Reagan administration. Actually, during all of the Reagan administration, 6 years in the minority, 2 years in the majority, Senator Byrd could have done that at any point. He did not do it, to his credit. To his credit, he did not yield to the temptation. As I often say, there are plenty of things we could do around here, but we do not do it because it is not good to do it, even though it is arguably permissible. So when our friends on the other side of the aisle say the filibuster has been around since 1806, they are right. It is just that we did not exercise the option because we thought it was irresponsible.”