Posted on 08/24/2017 10:10:04 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I requested that Mitch M & Paul R tie the Debt Ceiling legislation into the popular V.A. Bill (which just passed) for easy approval. They…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2017
…didn't do it so now we have a big deal with Dems holding them up (as usual) on Debt Ceiling approval. Could have been so easy-now a mess!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2017
Answer: Half-true! According to a Wall Street Journal story from mid-July, the White House was indeed looking to stitch a debt-ceiling hike onto the popular, must-pass VA reform bill as a way of avoiding a debt-ceiling showdown later:
The upcoming debt-limit vote will be the first once since March 2006 with Republicans in control of the House, Senate and White House. Raising the limit will bring little joy for Republicans, many of whom want to tie spending cuts or other fiscal restraints to the debt limit.
As a result, the debt limit is likely to be attached to other must-pass legislation or to something like the veterans bill that is politically popular. The White House is supportive of the strategy, one of the people familiar with the discussions said.
“You know how this place works: You always stick something people love onto something people hate,” said Phil Roe, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, at the time. That’s exactly Trump’s point in his tweets. So why is his claim only half-true? Because: Obviously two establishmentarians like “Mitch M” and “Paul R” are eager to avoid brinksmanship over the debt ceiling. They played that game of chicken with Obama, ended up blinking, and have no desire to replay it now with Democrats. They’re the last guys in Congress who want to risk a technical default.
So who’s to blame if they’re not? Another article from mid-July, this time from Politico:
The reality is that striking a debt agreement will likely take much longer than two weeks. Republicans will need Democrats to carry the legislation because conservatives won’t vote for a debt ceiling increase without steep spending cuts — a proposition at which Democrats scoff.
Senate Democrats have also suggested they may play hard to get, demanding policy changes for their support. That all but ensures a multiweek negotiation process.
Would the House Freedom Caucus have gone along with a clean debt-ceiling hike simply because it was attached to the VA bill or would they have demanded spending cuts too? What would the Cruzes, Pauls, and Lees in the Senate have done? Ryan and McConnell are to some extent prisoners of their respective right wings. Also, would Democrats have gone along with a clean debt-ceiling hike in the Senate or would they have organized a filibuster in the name of, say, protecting ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion? The VA bill is a hard bill for a party to oppose but if their demands include things that are sacred to the party’s base, they can sell a little temporary obstructionism as leverage.
Besides, didn’t Trump himself bless the idea of brinksmanship a few nights ago in Phoenix when he threatened a government shutdown if the border wall isn’t funded? The debt ceiling is much more serious business than a shutdown, admittedly, but if he wants a clean debt-ceiling hike why would he invite Democrats to start making demands by making demands of his own on government funding?
Ah well. I’m sure McConnell will be a loyal soldier for him in shepherding through a compromise that averts fiscal calamity.
The only problem I have with Mitch McConnell is that, after hearing Repeal & Replace for 7 years, he failed!That should NEVER have happened!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2017
Update: D’oh. I had a brain fart in the original headline. Trump was referring to the debt ceiling, not to a shutdown, in his tweets. Sorry for the error.
“Don’t blame me. Campanis is the #@$&ing guy!”
They are in charge of allocating money, he is in charge of carryig it out.
They gave him a credit card with a spending limit. Stop spending when you reach it.
He can stop spending and spread it 1% across the board. The american people would LOVE HIM FOR IT.
If a debt ceiling bill doesn’t get to Trump’s POTUS desk then those two will get the most blame but Trump doesn’t seem to understand that he is POTUS and its his party, so he will be blamed too.
Same with repealing Obamacare.
Putting up bills without having the votes (failing to pass them) was portrayed generally (not on talk radio) as Trump’s failure and humiliation, and that was inevitable.
Trump is making some Turtle Soup and Weasel Pie
I’ve always said that Trump should let folks know that he does not support paying people to stay home and do nothing. His OPM, in its directions to federal agencies, should state that federal “workers” who are furloughed need to apply for unemployment benefits, just as folks in the private sector do. The employees should also be informed that there is no guarantee that they will ever be called back to work and that there will be no backpay for the days that furloughed fed employees don’t work—the only backpay will be for the “essential” employees who continued working.
Trump needs to tell Congresional leaders that he will veto any bill providing for “back pay” or non-working federal employees.
Nothing else needs to be said.
Huh? The democrats don’t want to raise the debt ceiling? Ok, where’s the problem? Don’t raise it. Cut the spending, cut the government.
There is a total hiring freeze at the state Dept according to my in law who recently retired from that dept. Good!
The American taxpayers are stills supporting ACORN (under another name) and dozens of other left wing activist groups. Bureaucrats are still going on useless junkets. We are still studying the sex life of the Central American toad.
“Nothing else needs to be said.”
Maybe this: We were given the choice of 15 other GOP candidates, but we chose Trump.
America was given the choice of Hillary Clinton, with her Heinous receiving the tacit and even express support of some of these GOP candidates, other “conservatives”, almost all the lobbyists, the `4th estate’, MSM, print and TV, etc. and on-and-on, but America chose Trump.
All Trump is saying to the GOP-e is, “Why won’t you do what the American people elected me to do and what you promised to do for seven years, after unanimously voting against it?”
The question hangs in the air .. like a stale fart lingering in aisle 6: Shop smart! Don’t shop GOPmart.
Vote the b******s out.
Are the sex life of the Central American toad and bureaucratic junkets related? It could explain some things.
bttt
The Republicans have a 47 vote majority in the House, a 2 vote majority in the Senate, a majority in every committee, the debt ceiling can’t be filibustered, what exactly are the Democrats doing that is holding them up?
Absolutely! The amount the government takes in can pay for priority items, like defense, and the people will find out quickly that they can get by without the other things. The establishment will be horrified to see that the curtain is being lifted on their charade, and will dash to pass something.
It would also set the stage for a shut down of government when they don’t pass the budget Trump calls for.
The only danger is that Congress with all the Republican weasels might be able to override a Trump veto of their bills. The House will probably be able to hold the line, the Senate, not likely.
Now they need to get rid of Obama and Hillary people and replace only needed positions.
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