There is an unelected bureaucrat who does a very important job in the U.S. Senate. Her name is Elizabeth MacDonough and she came into the limelight enforcing senate rules on President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill”.
“Meet the Senate parliamentarian, the official tying Republicans in knots over their tax bill” – AI TV
So what has become most interesting is even though MacDonough is an unelected appointed official of the government, she is supposed to remain bipartisan simply following the rules of the road (U.S. Senate). To keep it simple, one could think of her as a referee like in sports.
“GOP senator calls for Senate parliamentarian to be fired after ruling against Medicaid cuts” – The Hill
“Trump’s Power Play SHUT DOWN by Senate Rules!” – Night Radio
Recently she has become both a punching bag for conservatives as well as a rock star hero of liberals as she ruled against certain parts of the “One Big Beautiful Bill”. The reason for these two opposing takes on her service in office has to do with how she ruled on areas of Trump’s OBBB. Essentially she follows the Byrd Rule officially known as Section 313 of the Congressional Budget Act. The rule is named after the former late Senator Charles Byrd (WV-D).
The budget “reconciliation process” only requires 51 votes of the Senate. But if items are included in the budget bill that cross the line that seem to delve into the realm of policy, the older budget “standard process” has to be used which requires 60 votes. Some examples, she found of policy in the following areas of the OBBB:
- Reduce funding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
- Reduce the Federal Reserve budget.
- Eliminate the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
- Prohibiting Medicaid funding for certain healthcare services to certain individuals.
- A requirement states to cover more costs of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
- A proposal to sell roughly 2 million acres of Federal public lands across 11 states.
- A section to remove regulations pertaining to gun silencers and easily concealable firearms under the National Firearms Act.
CONCLUSION:
I don’t think Elizabeth MacDonough is either a hero or a heel. I think she is a person just doing her job and doing it pretty well. She is a college educated attorney of Vermont Law School and has been on the job since 2012.
Some of those areas that President Trump will have to work towards after the modification of the OBBB will include areas such as follows:
- Reduce the Federal Budget to reduce deficit spending.
- Deregulate and roll back EPA emissions standards for transportation and manufacturing.
- Penalize Department of Defense contractors and financial overseers for cost overruns and delayed deadlines.
- Eliminate bureaucratic waste in the Federal government.
- Cease any and all Federal aid payments of any type to illegal aliens.
It seems like some Democrats want to portray MacDonough as a hero who threw up a speed bump to Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill while some Republicans want to portray her as a heel that did not impose the same standards to the Biden administration she now has for the Trump administration. I don’t think either of those assessments is appropriate.
It seems to me President Trump and the Republicans need to do a better job at both shaming and wooing elected Democrats to come on board to do two simple things:
- Follow the will of the people they were elected to serve.
- Stop the needless deficit WASTEFUL pork spending!
Read also:
“Is America Broke?” – The Thinking Conservative
© 2025 by Mark S. Schwendau
