The House on Monday evening approved a bill to re-open the government, sending the package to President Trump’s desk to end the three-day government shutdown as Senate Democrats backed off their opposition.
The bill passed 266-150, following votes earlier in the day in the Senate.
The temporary spending bill would keep the government open until Feb. 8. The bill arrived at the White House late Monday and the president was expected to sign it.
Democrats agreed to re-open the government after Republicans assured them the Senate would soon consider legislation that would protect illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children. It was a stark contrast from the Senate Democratic position just a few days ago.
“In a few hours, the government will reopen,” Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said on the Senate floor on Monday.
The Senate then voted 81-18 to break a Democratic filibuster on the stalled government spending bill. Several hours later, the Senate approved the bill.
The bill the Senate approved was pretty much the same bill Senate Dems blocked from receiving a vote late last week. I guess they took for granted that their media accomplices would provide adequate cover for them. However, as talented as they are in their role as a leftist transcript service, not even the mainstream media could put a good face on Democrats opposing a resolution which funded children's health insurance and military pay but didn't include protecting illegal immigrants.
The Democrat cave-in is the kind of thing that was bound to happen when they make declarations to RESIST the Trump administration at all costs. Whether they like it or not, the Dems' "resistance" occasionally flies in the face of what's best for the people they represent. As such, this whole saga placed Schumer in a rather precarious position.
The turn of events Monday marked the most serious cracks in the unity Schumer has painstakingly built within his caucus since he became Democratic leader a year ago. After holding almost all Democrats together through fights over the Supreme Court, health care, taxes and even Friday’s vote that shut down the government, Schumer is now under attack from the left and confronting pointed criticisms of his negotiating skill.
His performance resulted in a Democratic-led shutdown — and an agreement with McConnell that provided no guarantee of a new immigration law. But multiple Democratic senators and aides told POLITICO in the aftermath that it might have been Schumer's only way out: He couldn’t go against the bulk of his left-leaning caucus in fighting for DACA recipients. But he also could not allow the shutdown to drag on for so long that it began hurting his vulnerable incumbents.
After opening up a double digit margin in the Generic Congressional Ballot a couple of months ago, the Dems have seen that number dip to just 5% this past week. And given they have to defend 26 of the 34 U.S. Senate seats up for election in 2018 (10 of those 26 seats are in states which Trump won in 2016), the Democrats realized rather quickly this "shutdown" over DACA was a politically untenable stance they've taken.
If the leftist media wasn't providing cover for the Dems during the shutdown, there sure as heck wasn't going to be any favorable coverage after the fact.
Democrats have managed to accede to Republican demands, demoralize their energized base, give a disengaged president a win, and look like they held a meaningless three day government shutdown — all at once.— Matt Viser (@mviser) January 22, 2018
At the end of the day, I'm skeptical that this debacle will have a significant impact in the 2018 midterm elections. However, what should worry leftists is the Dem infighting that seems to be occurring. And here I thought Republicans had the market cornered on an unwillingness to fight anything except themselves. A brave new world.
-----------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment