Does Senator Schumer Really Need to Up His Game with Republicans?
McConnell is a weasel. He has sold out his own by making promises and then reneging on them like he did with Collins. He makes promises to Democrats and then reverses his stance laying the blame on them. Over at Washington Monthly, the writers think Schumer needs to up his game. Lets ask the question of whether the Democrats really caused the military not to be paid and shut down the government. Click on the link or view the Youtube.
With three “I objects,” to Senators introducing bills on the floor, McConnell and Republicans owned the Government Shutdown.
It was not just McCaskill who gave McConnell his comeuppance by introducing a bill, asking for unanimous support to vote for military pay, and hearing McConnell give his “I object” to voting on this to the bill. Nelson from Florida asked for one more day to keep the government open, and Testor from Montana asked to keep the government open through the weekend. Each did it by introducing a bill on the floor, asking for unanimous support to go forward with a vote, and each time McConnell said “I object.”
Democrats did not kill pay to the military or shut down the government. Senator Addison Mitchell McConnell and Republicans did.
Schumer orchestrated a well deserved boot in the ass for McConnell. In each case, McConnell objected to each of three bills going forward, leaving the liability of not paying the military and shutting down the government the fault of Republicans and himself. Schumer gave three Democrats in states where the races are close an opportunity to talk about they introduced bills to keep the government open, how Republicans failed to support the bills, and killed pay to the military and shut down the government.
One very frustrating thing:
-Political media are idiots, so they focus on the bright shiny object, in this case, the Senate.
-But does every single pundit have to be as stupid?
In the House, what leverage did Democrats have?
California GOP House Members could get annilated over DACA in November. But with Issa retiring, Ryan sent McCarthy out to publicly announce that no DACA vote would happen during shutdown. If Senate passed bill with CHIP and DACA, Ryan was prepared to let the whole thing burn.
Thornton:
It is a matter of laying the blame where it should be for placing DACA, CHIPs and the ACA at risk, for lying about the tax bill, not paying the military, and shutting down the government. This was McConnell at his best in being a lying weasel. What is frustrating is the media not reporting the issues in a context to which the citizenry can understand what is happening to them. For once they got it right and the next day Trump comes out and blames the Dems.
Ryan’s dream of killing SS and Medicare is in sight and if he is successful, he will leave the House.
Now to answer your question on the Senate, the minority filibustering the Senate and blocking the majority unless 60 votes agreed to end debate was never supposed to happen. It was always supposed to be a majority vote to end debate (previous question motion) and to pass legislation. Except for 6(?) defined reasons detailed in the constitution, majority votes were supposed to be all that was needed. The Senate needs to be fixed as well as the House to the functionality it was supposed to be.
A. One of the advantages of being the majority party is that the Leader of the Senate get’s his / her own way.
B. The Senate makes it own rules.
C. The constitution says so explicitly.
D. If you don’t like it, tough shit…. get the constitution changed.
E. Quit complaining… try to get congress to change the constitution and give up it’s right to make theirr own rules
F. Good luck
G. Deal with the way it is, not they way you wish it is.
J Try crying over 200 year old spilt milk instead. Maybe that will work.
(I skipped the letter “I” intentionally).
K The D’s would have done the same thing if the tables were turned.
(I skipped H. because I forgot it)
L. The D’s can fix this in November if they really want to… they just have to get out more D’s to the polls than the R’s can get out to vote and since the D’s have a registered voter majority it can be done. It’s only a matter of how much interest they really have in turning things around. Talk’s cheap. Use your feet..
Far too much time is wasted on this “who gets the blame for the shutdown”. It simply does not matter. Reps will blame Dems and Dems will blame Reps, and their voters will just file along regardless of any facts.
The question is what positives can be gained in the negotiations by the threat, or the implementation, of the shutdown and the negatives that are suffered.
Not some rhetorical blame game that means nothing.
EM:
You, Thornton, and I who know what is taking place; it does not matter who is wrong or who is right (It is not blame. It is wrong or right). It is not rhetorical. Too many times the information spread by the media casts a shadow upon Democrats and their candidates as being the cause, lying, taking money, failing to act, etc. It was a purposeful shutdown by the Repubs holding DACA and CHIPs hostage forcing a Sophie’s choice. I just hope the Dems have enough moxie to keep DACA stateside and not deport them.
Gonna take a lot of moxie. I doubt the GOP will give up on this.
EM:
It would be great if they got together and went on national TV in support as they did “1” other time and explain the issues.
I think the real mistake was not pivoting quickly enough after Trumps immigration tantrum.
The republicans did that fairly well, with their next day switch to CHIP plus some tax cuts for a short CR.
Democrats, however, got stuck on DACA which was not going to happen that week because of the tantrum. Perhaps should have pivoted to CHIP + I don’t know community health centers? Net Neutrality? Anything on their wishlist other than DACA.
There is a problem though. Democrats actually care about the 600,000 people affected by DACA, and the millions by CHIP. Republicans are, at best, conflicted about whether low income children deserve doctors and whether it is ok to punish those brought to the country as children. For Republicans these people’s lives are mostly just bargaining chips to be spent on tax cuts for the rich or expanding the military, so its easy to let them twist for another month.
Anyway, with a 1 day shutdown (the first weekend doesn’t really count) there just isn’t much blame to go onto whoever gets it. Its kind of an aside on what happened. Another 3 weeks of CR with CHIP and some healthcare tax cuts.
Also, the democrats did so vastly better with this CR than the last one.
The last one, ‘clear the calendar for tax cuts in return for *nothing*’ was an actual loss.
Jeff,
Which was the last CR?
Actually it was the one before last, Dec 7.
As the senate struggled to pass the tax cuts the democrats voted up a no-strings 2 week CR with essentially no fight at all.
The next two weeks could then be devoted entirely to getting the tax cut through.
That was a moment of very high leverage. The republicans were on a clock to give their Christmas present to the rich, and on real practical clocks to pass something so that it could be implemented before the next year started. Further, to play hard and even harder ball, the special election was in progress, and McCain was getting sicker.
And what did the democrats do? Just voted to keep the government open easy as you please, and got nothing at all for it.
Dec 7
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2017-12-07/house-senate-pass-continuing-resolution-to-fund-government-through-dec-22
Dec 21
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/21/senate-has-enough-votes-to-pass-spending-bill-sets-stage-for-tax-cut-signing.html
At the end of the day, I think we are all simple peasants who pretend to be the “master” when he is not around; we are all peasants who like to speak ill of injustice, but we only do something about it when it happens to us. Maybe it’s human nature, what sad animals we are.
Trump was chosen to approve a couple of evil projects (like the tax reform and other ultraright’s gems) that both Republicans and Democrats wanted to do but did not want to be blamed for; Trump is just a hit man and everyone is complicit in this. None of them will do anything until the damage is completely done. Daca, Chip and everything else is just the little tap on the shoulder that the master gives us when he returns…
Maybe it isn’t going to be important who did what to bring about the very brief shutdown. As for Dreamers, my guess is that their value as an unresolved problem for November will appeal to Democrats a lot. If House Republicans can manage to pass an immigration bill with their own votes it is going to be an interesting time for both parties in the Senate.
Right now it’s about DACA, tomorrow about funding ‘illegals” roundups and deportations, & eliminating judicial restraints, even if not the “Wall”.
But behind that it will be about the Asians, who by 2055 are projected to be the largest minority (38%) behind Hispanics (31%), and since the Whites are by 2050 projected to be a minority, then the only way to avoid losing white protestant privilege and rule is to eliminate or significantly mitigate these threats to it while the White supremacists still can.
“Asians are projected to become the largest immigrant group in the country, surpassing Hispanics in 2055. In 50 years, Asians will make up 38% of all U.S. immigrants, while Hispanics will make up 31% of the nation’s immigrant population.”
.http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/09/08/key-facts-about-asian-americans/
The white supremacist hit list is designed to insure white northern-European protestant privilege remain in control of the US.
That is what is really at issue… and that is what the D’s and liberal whites have to do battle with.
Run-
“Supposed to”? This never makes sense in politics. Does it matter that Social Security wasn’t “supposed to be” your only income? No. Who cares. If politics in 2018 play out in a way that SS benefits are raised to a level that people can retire without other savings, then what was “supposed to happen” in 193x doesn’t matter.
The Senate was supposed to be a bunch of Gentleman Farmers from Virginia hanging out with wealthy merchants and lawyers from Boston. Who cares?
Right now, the filibuster is McConnell’s weak point. He won’t nuke it because he wants the minority leader in 2030 to be able to filibuster the bill that sells off the assets of University of Kentucky and uses them to pay for universal education at Federal College Berea… or whatever it is that Dems choose to do as the GOP struggles to reinvent itself in the coming multi-racial democracy.
I think Schumer deserves credit for playing his weak hand well. He got CHIP, which Republicans were holding hostage, off the table without losing whatever leverage he had and perhaps increasing it by having this CR expire close to the end date for DACA. If he can get something through the Senate, maximum political pressure will be on the House. If the House blocks DACA it will only enhance the likelihood of a wave election in the House races and likely have the Republicans held responsible by the electorate for any additional shut down. Additionally, the Democrats trying to defend senate seats in states won by Trump will be helped. Turning the Senate is a long shot but a possibility. In other words, Schumer is continuing to play the game and has not lost by this go round whatever the Republicans and pundits may say.
LT:
I think you are wasting mine and everyone else’s time here with your verbose comments, please stop doing so on AB.