WASHINGTON–U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Sunday joined CNN’s State of the Union to discuss President Biden’s economic successes as well as the need for Supreme Court ethics reform.
On the effectiveness of Bidenomics, Murphy said: “The economy is booming right now. You're talking about unemployment under 4%. You're seeing a reduction in inflation that’s outpacing all of our other global competitors. GDP rising. You know, one of the stunning statistics from the second quarter is that GDP grew by two and a half percent, but 25% of that growth was due to factory construction. And so that means that this isn't just a short term improvement in the economy. We are bringing back manufacturing jobs. We're going to be putting people back to work in jobs that have real wages, pensions, benefits. That's a transformation of the economy, not just a band-aid.”
Murphy continued: “But I get it people listened to Donald Trump say that he was going to reindustrialize the economy, that he was going to bring back manufacturing jobs, and he didn't. And so there is a skepticism from the American electorate that presidents who say that they're serious about bringing good jobs back are going to do it. But I think as you continue to see these repeated quarters, these repeated good news stories about the American economy being transformed and people getting back to work that Joe Biden is going to get credit for that. He should because we are seeing an absolute revolution of our economy right now. The kind of good paying jobs that used to be the foundation of America coming back, and that's Joe Biden's policies.”
On Justice Samuel Alito’s false assertion that Congress has no authority to regulate the Supreme Court: “First of all, it's just stunningly wrong. And he should know that more than anyone else because his seat on the Supreme Court exists only because of an act passed by Congress. It is Congress that establishes the number of justices on the Supreme Court. It is Congress that has passed in the past requirements for justices to disclose certain information. And so it is just wrong on the facts to say that Congress doesn't have anything to do with the rules guiding Supreme Court. In fact, from the very beginning, Congress has set those rules.”
Murphy highlighted the need to pass Supreme Court ethics reform: “But it is even more disturbing that Alito feels the need to insert himself into a congressional debate. And it is just more evidence that these justices on the Supreme Court, these conservative justices just see themselves as politicians. They just see themselves as a second legislative body that has just as much power and right to impose their political will on the country as Congress does. They're going to bend the law in order to impose their right wing view of how the country should work on the rest of us. And it's why we need to pass this commonsense ethics legislation to at least make sure we know that these guys aren't in bed having their lifestyles paid for by conservative donors as we have unfortunately seen in these latest revelations.”
Murphy has introduced legislation to apply a code of conduct to the Supreme Court every Congress since 2011. Most recently, he introduced the Supreme Court Ethics Act, requiring the Judicial Conference of the United States to create a code of ethical conduct for the Supreme Court of the United States. It would also require the appointment of an Ethics Investigations Counsel and require justices to publicly disclose recusal decisions.
###