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Trump Bypasses Ryan and McConnell; Cuts Deal with the Real Congressional Leaders
So here’s why PDT bypassed Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and went to work with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer on the debt increase: What do you do when you’re a customer and an employee isn’t doing his job? You demand to talk to their supervisor. Which is essentially what Trump did, he went to the people who are actually running the House and Senate.
Ryan and McConnell are all butt-hurt now, but seriously, what was their plan anyway? They were going to cave to the Democrats eventually, they always do. Trump just forced them to cut to the chase.
Congressional Republicans (apart from the Freedom Caucus) are in a perpetual conundrum because they actually want the same things as Congressional Democrats: bigger Government, more spending, mass immigration and cheap labor, and favors for their cronies. But Republican constituencies do not want these things. So, the trick for Republicans like Ryan and McConnell is that they have to fool the voters into thinking they’re against what they are actually for, and for what they are actually against.
It’s much easier for them to do that as Kabuki opposition; they can put forth all kinds of legislation… Obamacare repeal, border security, even modest spending cuts… knowing that Democrats will stop them and then they can shrug and say “Well, we tried.” (This is what is known as “Failure Theater.”)
But when they are the majority in both houses of Congress with a Republican president, it’s a harder for them to advance a Democrat agenda while pretending to oppose it. But still, they manage.
Published in Politics
Sure we do, we don’t have to talk about the Dreamers any more.
In what ways are Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer preferable to Hillary Clinton?
Also: Are you saying you’d be okay with NeverTrump if Joe Biden were the nominee? How about Bernie Sanders? Cory Booker? Which Democrats are acceptable to you?
Absolutely. And people forget how McConnell fought effectively against the McCain-Feingold nonsense. But good stuff in the past counts for nothing, I guess. Easier to just hate…
And don’t forget that Gorsuch wouldn’t even have been nominated if the caucus hadn’t held together to keep Garland off the bench.
They’re not and never were going to be president.
Hillary was exceptionally bad. Her mishandling of classified information and her awful judgement would have been disastrous in the White House. BTW, if you want to limit the amount of damage that the Trump, Pelosi, Schumer triumverate does you better at least show up and vote for Republicans next year. Those of us who are very disappointed with congressional leadership, but want Pres. Trump to get a big win better at least show up and vote for Republicans next year.
Trump is a Democrat, and he is proud of it!
Justice Gorsuch
You might want to thank McConnell (and the Heritage list makers) but you won’t……
If Trump is a Democrat, and all other Democrats were like Trump, there would be very few Republicans. He is not an ideologue for sure. He is a pragmatic Conservative. His fiscal values are not Conservative. His concept of jurisprudence have been proven by his judicial appointees (if the Senate will move them thru) and his basic plea for law and order to be conservative. His social values, well he isn’t the Pope, but they are plenty enough conservative to get the overwhelming support of Evangelicals. His sense of fairness and forthright fearlessness get him more support from minority communities than pretty much any other Republican could achieve. I don’t understand your comment.
I will. McConnell did well with Gorsuch. Heritage has been helpful also. Its a good thing the people at Heritage haven’t taken the same view as some NeverTrumpers who wouldn’t lift a finger to help him…actually just the opposite…do everything they can to destroy him. But for the last six months, I haven’t seen much success from McConnell, while Heritage is still helping Trump pick excellent judges.
Trump is not a Democrat. Trump is not a Republican. Trump is for Trump.
I simply am not living on the same planet as many of my fellow conservatives. Sure Trump is brash and coarse at times — the quintessential ugly American. But, I know I am not the only one to see that he’s a patriot! A doer, not a talker. Yes, not a Republican either, and thank God!
Sure, he wants to be a good president and to make improvements in the country that will redound to him. He’s human. Sheesh.
How about we discuss the issues and stop slamming the man. Is it a good or bad thing to defer the debt ceiling negotiation and deal with Harvey and Irma up front? Might it be wiser to do away with the debt ceiling altogether, given that it doesn’t actually seem to cap the debt, but, instead, gives Democrats multiple opportunities each year to blame Republicans for even the possibility of a shutdown? Might it expose the fact that there is no amount of debt — no amount of government — which is too much for the Democrats?
I’m beginning to believe the reason Trump is so loathed on the Left and the Right is he exposes too much truth.
“The first reaction to truth is hatred.” — Tertullian
I believe there were three questions you asked. I will answer: Yes, Yes and Yes.
I do thank McConnell. He should thank me too. I voted for him twice. How about you thank Trump. Without him it wouldn’t have happened.
This assumption that any random Republican President wouldn’t have nominated a conservative Justice to replace Scalia is actually one of the sillier Trumpian talking points. But here you are…..
The concept that no matter what good things Trump does should be discounted as next to worthless because, hey, any Republican would have done that, while at the same time hammering him for everything with which you disagree, is one the the sillier things Democrats do all the time. You’re not a Democrat are you? BTW, I won’t bother to list some of the Justices that our previous Republican Presidents have nominated that were, shall we say, less than optimum.
Pelosi could very well be third in line for the Presidency, and Trump just handed her a huge victory.
The thread is about Trump cutting a deal with the Dems.
Besides:https://twitter.com/BenHowe/status/906323844507586560
I’m glad to see we agree that, whatever his nominal party affiliation, Trump is actually unmoored to either party.
I also agree that “he wants to be a good president and to make improvements in the country that will redound to him.” I’ve felt the same about every president in my lifetime, even if their vision for what is good disagreed with mine. In their hearts, they knew they were right.
I never made this assumption. Obviously a Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio would have made such a nomination. What idiot would dispute this? But thank you for clarifying the fact that you assume that any of the Republican candidates would have shattered the Big Blue Wall in ’16. Maybe they would have; we can never know. But Michael Barone makes a pretty persuasive argument that Trump was the only one who could. Rubio and Cruz never made the slightest effort to appeal to working class whites in the Rust Belt; that is undeniable.
BTW, when Florida (the all important swing state) is obliterated by Hurricane Irma in the next few days, it will soon be taken for granted that avoiding a partisan fight over disaster aid was the obviously smart political move on Trump’s part, just like taking and fortifying the high ground before Gettysburg was the obvious move for the Union to make. Doing the obvious immediately often makes the difference between victory and defeat in war and in politics. Write that down, it will be on the test.
Very clever not posting your comment to which mine was a reply…but thanks for sending me to this tweet thread. Another thing you failed to mention was this reply to Mr. Howe:
And this —but any Democrat would have done these things in his first eight months, wouldn’t they? That is while they weren’t raising taxes.
Reddit. Haha.
https://twitter.com/ReaganAshley_18/status/906353184280543232
Trump is a Democrat (who sometimes hires conservatives), and he is proud of it!
You’re right. Heritage and the GOP majority leader made Trump reject the proposal from his own administration and adopt the Pelosi/Schumer approach. Doggone conservatives and GOPe drove Trump into the arms of liberal Democrats, a real strange bedfellow, oh, wait, he used to donate money to them less than a decade ago . . . Yeah, Trump is the only real Republican.