Maybe Flake is finding that occasionally speaking truth feels okay. I am “not inclined” to give him the benefit of the doubt. Not until donnie comes up with a nickname for him.
Flake will probably come around. The real question, rather, is whether enough Dems in the Senate will support this CR by the end of the day even without a DACA fix hammered out. Regardless of what Schumer says, DACA is the one issue keeping enough Dems from supporting it. No clear “winner” in a shutdown and in this case the Dems won’t come out looking nearly as good to moderates and independents as the previous two times.
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Agree so much. Seems of late that this forum has degenerated into a lot of name calling and school-yard type discussion. We can do better.
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While I don’t believe for a minute Flake will actually stand up to his caucus, he is right about Trump.
Trump is not vetoing anything, He won’t own a shutdown and that’s the bottom line.
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With Republicans controlling all three branches (I know, judiciary) and with DACA popularity at well over 70% (even majority popularity among Republicans) Dems would be crazy to cave this time. Remember, Trump only ended DACA to ‘force’ a congressional solution. Dems need to make sure he gets what he asked for.
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I agree. Congress needs to do their job (for the country/people). Trump can either aid them or block them.
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We don’t negotiate with terrorists, right?
There is no getting around the DACA/Dreamer conundrum for the Dems, its an absolute must. So all agreements have to include the already guaranteed protections at least with no possibility of rescinding them, even though this shouldn’t be a part of a budget package at all.
Take away tax cuts for the rich, legalize marijuana, reinstate SCHIP, quit attacking legal abortion, reduce military spending by 25% and start working towards national healthcare. This is where we start the discussion with the goal of finalizing an immigration/security package as a matter of business not as a bargaining chip.
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Ummm…which way is the wind blowing today Jeff…remember that critical tax vote that fucked over millions of Americans last month? Where were you to make a difference in the Trump “legislative victory”? Please stop embarrassing yourself with the self serving nonsense.
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He got his precious tax cut no need to pretend anymore I guess
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Some of these people may vote no, but ONLY if the Dems already have the votes to kill the bill anyway.
I’'d say it’s possible that Graham might provide the deciding vote against the bill if it came down to his vote making the difference. But only in revenge for Trump publicly dissing him on DACA.
However, I think it’s VERY unlikely to come down to one vote, so we’ll probably only find out which of these will vote against an already dead bill. My guess would be Flake, Graham and Paul. But it’s only a guess.
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We’ll see. Seems like I’ve seen this movie before.
You’re right, we have all seen this movie before. And it’s not that unusual for a few GOPers to vote against their party’s position – when it doesn’t matter because the bill is going to pass or fail by a large enough margin that they aren’t the deciding vote.
Much more rarely, we’ve seen a few cases where a couple of GOPers vote against their party’s position when it does matter. Notably McCain, Collins and Murkowski killing the GOP’s Obamacare Repeal and (Fake) Replacement bill.
In the case of this temporary spending bill, I think it’s more likely to be the former – a few GOP defections, but only because their votes won’t make the difference anyway because the bill is so far short of enough votes to pass anyway.
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