Discussion: McConnell, Schumer Unveil Senate Deal To Fund Government

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#21

This is a functional democracy folks - you get 80% of what you want and then you stick it to the other side for not giving you the rest. The minority is limited in what they can accomplish - but they just accomplished funding the government of the largest economy on earth, while increasing spending in critical areas.

As for DACA - holding the rest of the government hostage over this issue isn’t going to work. Those are GOP tactics -failed GOP tactics, one might add. The only way to provide proper political pressure to get this thing done right is to remove all other forms of leverage the GOP has been using - and this spending bill does just that.

McConnell is betting on people just not caring about Dreamers. McConnell is wrong. Call his bluff.

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#22

Folks on our side can’t complain about short-term CRs and long-term deals. Midterm election primaries start next month too. There is a lotta Dem stuff in this Senate deal that is gonna be hard for House GOPS to swallow and the hardline base is gonna hammer them if they swallow it.

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#23
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#24

Things are still fluid. Right now it looks as if the debt ceiling is suspended through February or March next year.

#25

I thought Rubin had some good comments. And I just saw @jtx already posted this…

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#26

For all those criticizing Senator Schumer and the Democrats, kindly to piss off. Nothing would get through the House in any case; this is the best we can do for now. Next January, hopefully the tune will change. We have to deal with the Congress we’ve got, not the one we’d like to have. November’s election will tell the tale.

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#27

Dreamers, under the bus. Dems love playing identity politics, but when push comes to shove they mumble pragmatism.

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#28

Since the majority of Americans are on the side of the Dreamers, and since it was a sticking point, pulling it out and not allowing donald to use them as bargaining chips is a good thing IMO. McConnell has promised a full floor discussion on the Dreamers, and that is how the gubment is supposed to work… not all this closed doors stuff. The dreamers will be o.k. and donald looses a lot of his leverage if this approach is followed. Shutdown is too hurtful to too many Americans, and too risky for dems in red states that are needed to gain flipped house and maybe senate.

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#29

Just shut it the f**k down. Use this as an opportunity to pull back and draw down our troops so they protest in the streets in resistance to Trump’s anti-democratic executive orders and Republican treason.

#30

How did push come to shove, exactly? Can you specify what you would do differently - for example, how do you propose we get DACA thru the House? Forcing a shutdown? How will that get the House onboard, specifically?

I understand that there’s an emotional component to this, but it seems like the issue you have with Democrats is the fact that they operate in a democracy. There’s no content to your griping. From where I stand, you avoid a shutdown, increase spending in critical areas - and put something in front of the House that they’d actually have a chance of passing. All while in the minority. Not bad, imo.

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#31

Some of those …

Are the one’s that helped to get us here …in the first place —

Soo …Double piss off –

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#32

DACA is still on the table, because it looks as if Ryan won’t be able to pass this or anything resembling it without votes from democrats. So now it will be entirely on the republicans in the house for shutting down the government because they want to cause more pain.

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#33

That’s right, elections matter. Right now the Republicans run the country because Democrats were too busy fighting among ourselves to vote in 2016. The real question is: Have we learned anything?

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#34

The calculation seems to be that, with McConnell having promised to do, well, something slightly vague, but something nonetheless, by way of an immigration debate, the remaining “wins” in this budget deal for domestic spending and health care are significant enough by themselves.

We’ll see. Not sure that I trust McConnell further than I can throw a locomotive, but the reasoning is at least plausible. And if he really does try to pull a Lucy-and-the-football move, he can be made to pay a price for that all on its own terms.

What I think is more significant, and maybe even encouraging, is that McConnell has finally jettisoned the model of the ®s hashing out their Christmas wish list first, in secret, with no (D) input, then trying to jam it through, and bitterly-hypocritically lamenting the partisanship of the resulting opposition.

By God, they’ve actually done something important in a truly bipartisan way. That used to be normal.

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#35

Not to mention that it takes away the GOP talking point that Dems blocked a possible bipartisan deal, and would be held responsible for shutting down the government. AND if the regressives in the House can’t pass this deal, that gives the Dems a huge issue to highlight heading into the 2018 midterm elections.

#36

I know we need to pull together, but . . . . I still have questions about Schumer’s approach. That makes me a bad guy on this site. It may be the best that Dems can do, but I’m worried about the perception (even if false) that we are abandoning Dreamers. Now I better hide, because I will have earned the wrath of many commenters here.

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#37

The deal would set federal spending for the next two years, boosting both defense and non-defense spending by a combined $300 billion and raising the debt limit for months.

I know this is a compromise, no one is supposed to be completely happy. However, when it comes to needless military spending ;I am super sick of it, especially the money we throw at them they never asked for, and then lose. (I know… pork barrel… both my dem senators always vote for increased military spending) But we really need to stop that.

Elsewhere in “Money Our Government Mishandled”:

The mission for the Federal Emergency Management Agency was clear: Hurricane Maria had torn through Puerto Rico, and hungry people needed food. Thirty million meals needed to be delivered as soon as possible.

For this huge task, FEMA tapped Tiffany Brown, an Atlanta entrepreneur with no experience in large-scale disaster relief and at least five canceled government contracts in her past. FEMA awarded her $156 million for the job, and Ms. Brown, who is the sole owner and employee of her company, Tribute Contracting LLC, set out to find some help.

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#38

I would like to say that hearing the Freedom Cause complain about the deal makes me feel better about it, but there is so much noise in the debate that it is hard to find a clear path that leads to happiness. I think I am having to work out for myself how to accept the fact that this seems like a less-than-ideal agreement, but that it is more a matter of playing a hand badly dealt than playing it especially badly. We just don’t have a lot of power cards, and while that is merely depressing for me, I cannot help thinking that it is disastrous for the dreamers.

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#39

No it doesn’t marb …

Questions are necessary … and needed —

Thoughtful discourse are what we’re about … and you’re one of the bestest –
Just not the etched in stone … now I’ll use my hammer on you …kind —

We need to look at a L…O…N…G picture …
Be willing to discuss and compromise …

Not be extremist and so inflexible that we snap in a stiff breeze —
(there I go with a tree reference)(don’t tell the squirrel — :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

If our side can do ANYTHING to get the bow to start swinging round …at this point in the storm …toward a different direction …
Then I’ll take it —

And still stay suited up for the next round —

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#40

It was until March 2019 I think. Well after the midterms

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