Posted on 05/02/2017 8:33:34 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
President Trump is ready to give up on Congress — or maybe he already has. And we can totally see why he wants to just shut it down and start all over again. Democrats are united against him, Republicans seem hopelessly divided, and Trump's top priorities are no closer to being law than when he was running for president.
To wit: There's no question Democrats won this week's budget showdown, and it was mostly Trump's priorities that got left on the cutting floor when congressional leaders were making a deal.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said he shared President Trump’s “frustration,” with the compromises in the spending deal, but that there are “still a lot of conservative wins” in the bill during a news conference on May 2.
Republicans were too divided to provide enough votes for a strictly conservative budget, so the president had a choice: Push for a political reality that doesn't exist to try to make good on his campaign promises, or back off what he wants and help his divided party in Congress avoid a shutdown.
“What is Trump getting out of cooperation with the Republican Congress?” said Steve Bell, a former GOP Senate budget aide now with the Bipartisan Policy institute. “He's got to be asking himself in private — I don't know if he is. But goodness, I would be.”
In the meantime, a unified Democratic Party is getting much of what it wanted: Funding for Planned Parenthood; more money, not less, for domestic programs; and not a dime spent on building Trump's wall. Oh, and Obamacare remains in place, and Trump will have to agree to pay subsidies to keep it alive.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Here’s the problem:
Every government shutdown, no matter what particular issue or issues led to it, is blamed by a dishonest mainstream media on republicans who are accordingly paralyzed by fear at the very idea of a shutdown.
Democrats can refuse to compromise because they have no fear of the shutdown. They know that in every case their media hacks will blame it all on republicans, 100%.
So republicans can either:
1. Improve their messaging to defend themselves from dishonest media characterization of a shutdown, or
2. Ignore the daily disinformation coming from leftist propaganda sites like CNNMSNBCNBCCBSABCNYTimes, etc. and protect conservative values in the face of withering leftist attack, or
3. Just continue to allow themselves, AND THEIR SUPPORTERS, to be frustrated and humiliated like this on a regular basis.
One of these 3 choices will result in republicans losing all power. And it’s not options 1 or 2.
Things not being addressed:
1) It’s not a govt shutdown that is the issue. It’s the debt ceiling. That would force a REAL gov’t shutdown. And no, don’t chest beat about how enforcing the debt ceiling is great. This is not the world of pre 2008. This is a world where the Federal Reserve can Quantitative Ease trillions of dollars from thin air. You aren’t taking a stand about anything when you say “no more debt”.
2) It really IS only 2017 spending. A new budget is in process. If there’s no Wall in that, then it really is game over. But a CR with a debt ceiling . . . not a significant thing.
3) You Are Not The Base. Keep repeating that. The Base is white guys in the Rust Belt who voted for Obama twice. They don’t give a damn about abortion. They don’t give a damn about conservatism in general. They want manufacturing jobs back, even if the companies have to take a loss doing that that. THEY are the base. Trump would be delighted to have companies bring jobs back operating at a loss. That’s not conservative. Neither is he. But he DOES have it right. Those are the untapped vote reservoir, not red meat conservatives in Texas, and he won’t get them appealing to their conservatism. They are about jobs and only because of THAT are they pro Wall.
Democrats are united against him, and so are most of the Republicans. They all fear diminution in incomes if they cooperate and the Democrats fear the retardation of their totalitarian state ideal also.
Yes, Ivanka is a problem and it is not going to get better. I hope Trump keeps his mind sharp and clear so he can better see the writing on the wall.
He seems to be getting increasingly “absent”. Maybe he needs a food tester?
Really? Puddling the floor over a shutdown that would be caused by the Democrats?
Republicans treat conservative voters like trained seals. They go on the campaign trail and shout the usual slogans to get them all to clap and vote for them. Then they go to washington with no intention of doing anything conservative.
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