Early in the day on
Wednesday the US House of Representatives voted on a nearly $8 billion aid
package to victims of Hurricane Harvey.
Senate Republican leaders had been planning to tie that aid to a bill to
raise the debt ceiling after the
2018 midterm elections.
Democrats were amenable
to helping move the aid/debt ceiling bill but would only agree to do so for
three months. This prompted Speaker of
the House Paul Ryan to go on the record despising the plan calling it “dumb” at
a news conference.
“Let’s just think about
this: We’ve got all this devastation in Texas. We’ve got another unprecedented
hurricane about to hit Florida, and they want to play politics with the debt
ceiling? I think that’s ridiculous and disgraceful that they want to play
politics with the debt ceiling at this moment when we have fellow citizens in
need, to respond to these hurricanes so we do not strand them,” Ryan said
angrily.
Shortly
thereafter, Ryan and other congressional leaders went to the White House for a
strategy meeting with the president.
It
was at that meeting that President Trump agreed to endorse a plan proposed by Sen.
Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi to attach hurricane relief money to a
shorter-term bump in the debt ceiling as well as keeping the government open.
Schumer, during the meeting, reminded the president that Ryan had
supported short-term increases in the past intended to help create bipartisan
deals in 2013.
Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell said later that he would support the deal agreed to by the
president but he made very clear following the Republican policy lunch that
this was an agreement between President Trump and Democratic leaders. He
wouldn't say if he was surprised by the deal, but said Trump's
"rationale" was the "feeling that we need to come
together."
.@SenateMajLdr says "the president and the Senate and House democratic leadership agreed to a 3-month CR and a #debtceiling into December." pic.twitter.com/6YEGt2HNvQ— CSPAN (@cspan) September 6, 2017
Countless
Americans have become increasingly disgruntled with Congress’s failure to get
anything done and see McConnell and Ryan as the obstacles to enacting the
president’s agenda. If things don’t change
voters will not only demand new leadership they will throw the bums out come
election day.
Ben Domenech, writing
at The
Federalist surmised, “This is the first sign Trump is waking up to the
inaccuracy of the conventional wisdom about needing McConnell and Ryan which
has animated so much of the early failures of the Republican legislative
agenda. So, he’s being more honest: he doesn’t like McConnell and Ryan, never
did. He likes Chuck Schumer, and knows
him, and thinks he can work with him.”
Voters began electing
men and women to serve in Congress who would repeal and replace Obamacare and
legislate tax reform beginning in 2010.
They’ve had years of preparation and yet have been unable to advance
their agenda. Republicans have failed to
deliver on their promises to President Trump and to the voters who sent them to
Washington to fight for them.
They’ve been blowing
smoke like a ’56 Rambler. I don’t blame
the president for taking sides against the feckless GOP elite.
Mitch McConnell had refused to meet with Trump for weeks, now GOP cries because Trump retaliated on debt ceiling. Welcome to hard ball.— Mike Cernovich 🇺🇸 (@Cernovich) September 6, 2017
By showing Republicans he can work with Democrats, Trump forces Republicans to unite or become irrelevant. He just changed the game.— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) September 7, 2017
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