From a Google Image Search - Trump and Abbott - CNN
I found it shocking when Mitch McConnell refused to allow President Obama to nominate Merrick Garland to take a seat on the Supreme Court saying that it was too close to an election. To refresh your memory let me cite an article from CNN.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/18/politics/merrick-garland-senate-republicans-timeline/index.html
"Other leading Republicans followed McConnell’s lead. A reason they frequently cited: What they called the “Biden rule.” Joe Biden had said in a 1992 Senate floor speech – when there were no high court vacancies to fill – that “once the political season is under way, and it is, action on a Supreme Court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over.” (Nothing like having your own words come back to haunt you.)
"McConnell never backtracked, despite Democrats’ hopes that he would face political pressure to do so. On February 23, a week after Scalia’s death and before Obama had nominated his replacement, McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor that no Obama nominee would receive a vote.”
“Presidents have a right to nominate, just as the Senate has its constitutional right to provide or withhold consent,” the Kentucky Republican said. “In this case, the Senate will withhold it.”
“GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that day signed a letter to McConnell saying they would refuse to hold hearings on any Scalia replacement until after a new president took office on January 20, 2017. Many Republicans cited the “Biden rule.”
(Out of order-this next bit came earlier in the article.)
"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a Friday night statement that President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Ginsburg will get a vote in the Senate. Doing so would be a complete reversal of his position in 2016, when the GOP-led Senate refused to hold a hearing or vote on then-President Barack Obama’s nominee, saying it was too close to the election."
We watched as the nominees from a list compiled by the Federalist Society were rapidly approved, and Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett turned the Supreme Court into an "Originalist" court which quickly gutted women's rights by letting Roe v Wade get manhandled in the states.
I'm sure that students of American government and politics would tell me that there is precedence for using the proximity to an election as an excuse for one party to deny powers to our other major party. Even if the only precedent is just the so-called "Biden rule," this kind of obstruction has not been used often and the whole process seemed distasteful and highly partisan.
Obstruction in Congress has been fierce lately and the obstructionists have all been Republicans. Currently, we are 11 months away from an election and Republicans are already being ordered by Donald Trump, not even the official candidate of the party yet, to withhold votes until after the 2024 election on issues that Republicans have been calling on Congress to address. The new immigration bill which would set limits on immigration, invest in more border patrol agents and more judges to determine refugee/asylum status, and which would send more funds to Ukraine and Israel is not even written as a formal bill, but Trump tells Republicans in the House that they should turn it down and wait until he is elected so that he can solve immigration. The man has no boundaries. Past power brokers have at least said the quiet part quietly.
Republicans hate spending money on middle-class or poorer Americans. They prefer to offer tax cuts to the wealthy, which increases America's deficit. They are faced with a second bill that gives slightly expanded Child Tax Credits to low-income Americans and makes a temporary tax cut to corporations permanent -- (something for everyone). It has passed in the House and is facing obstacles in the Senate. Republicans want to end benefit programs and slash the federal budget to make their small government dreams come true, so they hate to pass laws people will like because it will be harder to take benefits away when Trump wins in November (to Republicans, a foregone conclusion).
Nothing can be done in Congress because we are "waiting for Godot," oops, waiting for God's anointed to sit once again in our Oval Office. This is what our democracy has come to. How do we reverse this obstructionism and rule of human misery for low-wage workers? We vote for Biden/Harris in November. We put aside our petty or not-so-petty grievances against Biden, and we vote against Trump or for Biden, as you wish.