GOP Having Difficulty Funding Government; Dems Should Not Help

The Republicans may have grandiose plans for what they will do when Donald Trump becomes President but they can’t seem to put a budget together despite running both the House and the Senate. The government will run out of money on Friday unless Congress can agree on a spending bill. Right now the proposed bill is a hybrid between a pure continuing resolution (CR) and an omnibus spending bill as it looks like a CR but has a number of changes to current budget items which are normally contained in an omnibus bill. The House is expected to vote on the bill tomorrow and the Senate will follow shortly thereafter or on Friday.

The Freedom Caucus in the House has always been adamantly opposed to an omnibus spending bill in this lame duck session so it will be interesting to see how they react. The new leader of the Freedom Caucus, Mark Meadows, did not show a lot of spine when he said, “I think there’s a lot of people who believe we’ve just got to vote and get on with it”. However, Representative Thomas Massie from Kentucky said, “It’s an omnibus. It’s an omnibus that lasts until April 28. They call them ‘anomalies’ in the CR. It’s like ‘The Matrix.’” That’s what happens when you think you can create your own reality. Among the “anomalies”, or changes in spending, is an additional $10 billion for the Defense and State Departments and $4 billion for natural disasters. There are other smaller sticking points such as a no money for a miner pension shortfall that is angering Senator Joe Manchin, the refusal to lower the quorum threshold so that the Export-Import Bank can make larger loans, and the insertion of a clause limiting debate over a waiver for James Mattis to 10 hours, the latter two angering a range of Democrats. Democrats in both houses seem to echo Meadows feeling to just sign something and get out of town but I think they should think long and hard about holding back their support and see if Republicans can succeed or fail on their own. If they fail, a government shutdown looms. But it is long past time for Democrats to stop saving Republicans from themselves.

A separate matter that was also supposed to pass Congress this week was finally taking action on the Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund. Apparently, Republicans stripped out a “Buy America” provision in this bill during the conference to reconcile the House and Senate versions and Democrat Sherrod Brown is going ballistic. The provision required American-made steel and iron to be used in the Fund’s infrastructure projects. Says Brown, “By stripping meaningful Buy America rules from the water infrastructure bill, Washington leadership is choosing China and Russia over Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. This was the first major test of whether Washington establishment Republicans would live up to President-elect Trump’s promises to put American products and American workers first – they failed, and American iron and steel workers will pay the price.” Brown and Democratic Senators from Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are trying to get the provision inserted back in the bill.

I’m afraid this will be standard operating procedure for the Republican Congress for the next two years. Lots of chaos with Democrats being excluded from the process and lots of action happening in secret especially in the conferences to reconcile House and Senate bills. It will take eternal vigilance from Democrats to bring these details into the light, just like Sherrod Brown did with this Buy America provision.