Donald Trump used the budget negotiations to make an end run around the hapless GOP.
The president struck a deal with the Democrat leadership to extend the debt ceiling by 3 months thus snubbing the plan set forth by GOP leaders Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. The GOP plan called for an 18 month debt limit hike effectively taking the budget debate completely out of the 2018 mid-term elections. By agreeing to a 3 month extension the President is adding the budget to the list of issues that he can and will use to pressure the GOP to keep their promises.
Already the mid year elections are shaping up to be very contentious for GOP incumbents. So far this year has been filled with disappointments and failure including the notorious intentionally orchestrated failure to repeal Obamacare, failure to stop funding for Planned Parenthood and the failure to provide funding for the Border Wall to name just a few. On top of that they will have to come up with a plan to address DACA. These are policies that go right to the heart of the base of the Republican party and it’s almost unimaginable that any incumbent who runs in 2018 will be re-elected without answering for their actions, or lack thereof, on these issues.
By making a deal with the democrats the Trump administration is forcing the GOP to stop hiding, to stop the double talk, stop the lying and go on the record with a budget vote smack dab in the middle of the mid-term election year. If the GOP continues to play games and do nothing they will also be forced to vote on tax cuts in an election year and of course they’ll have to deal with Obamacare. It looks like the GOP free lunch is about to come to a sudden, humiliating and very public end.
It took him a few months, and that’s understandable, after all he thought we were all on the same team, but the President has now figured out exactly how to deal with the hapless collection of spineless jellyfish that populate the DC swamp. And he put the “big beautiful” spot light right on them. And he did all this in the Oval Office out in the open with international media coverage. Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan were reduced to sitting there dumbfounded and slack jawed while the president administered a good and proper spanking. They can’t hide, they can’t double talk. Now they have to act and act on the record.
The president just presented GOP with the very real possibility that he will cut taxes with the democrats not the GOP and will get rid of Obamacare also without GOP establishment help.
If Trump is able to pass his agenda without their help it would be very difficult for the GOP establishment to conjure up a raison d’etre in the 2018 elections.
President Trump relied on the GOP to deliver what they promised to America. Instead the GOP tried to play us, and him, for fools. Telling us, and him, that we are too stupid to know how the government works or hiding behind the cover of John McCain’s treasonous “NO” vote. The establishment Republicans are called the “stupid party” and if that moniker is deserved or not is another matter. However, they seem not to learn that undermining President Trump or opposing him with cheap chicanery does not work. It didn’t work in the primaries it didn’t work in the general elections and evidently is not working now.
Donald Trump just lit a bonfire under the GOP’s collective derriere and they’ll have to get to work or get said butt burned to a crisp and kicked right out of DC by all of us “deplorables”