McConnell has created a new power for the Executive: the Holster Veto, named after the GOP’s love of the second half of the 2nd Amendment, and his transitive relationship from him through Trump to Putin.
Now will Trump follow through on his regular veto threat now that he doesn’t have Ryan to do his dirty work? If not, the bill automatically becomes law in ten days without his signature, and overriding is moot.
Exactly, why is this so hard to understand and why isn’t this in every story about the shutdown? Why isn’t this a “every conversation” talking point for the D’s?
This may turn out to be much more significant than the article supposes. McConnell told Trump weeks ago that he has no leverage and isn’t going to get his wall money. The shutdown has been all about which Republican gets to disappoint the MAGAts by caving. McConnell wanted Trump to do it Trump wanted the evil establishment to take the fall.
Apparently McConnell is sick of waiting for Trump to give up and has decided to nudge him. In all likelihood, Trump’s bill will fail in the Senate, the Democrats’ bill will pass, the House will pass it too and then Trump will have to veto it or let it become law. If he does the former the increasingly unpopular shutdown is entirely on him and Congress may very well throw up its hands and override the veto. If he does the later, he has to at least share the blame for caving and coming up empty-handed from the shutdown.
I very much doubt the Republican bill can get 50 votes. The Democrat bill can. It has.
“For the first time, we will get a vote on whether to open up the government without any decision, one way or the other, on border security,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Tuesday night as the pair of leaders announced the deal.
I hate that very idea that the Senate will vote on a bill without any decision on border security. I am fine with a vote without any money for a wall, but border security??? Lots can be done to secure the border other than a freakin’ wall. Focus on that as an alternative! A wall and border security are not the same thing!!! That is completely the wrong way to phrase the position of the Dem caucus. Sorry to be bullheaded on that, but i had to get that out there.
This is currently breaking news and the dust hasn’t settled (e.g., look at the 3rd and 4th paragraphs of this article and tell me it’s clear WTF is going on), but I agree, this could be really big news, and essentially a capitulation by McConnell. If the clean bill passes, is Trump REALLY going to veto it? Or is he REALLY going to shut down the gov’t again Feb 8?
I think the Schumer bill will pass, and with enough Republican votes to reach 60. The dynamic between now and the Thursday vote will be overwhelmingly to get the government open and to start negotiations. Local newspapers and TV stations will be all over this like a bee on a petunia. I think we all tend to forget that most of the states with the highest per capita percentage of the population working for the federal government are the intermountain states of the west.
Did I miss the explanation? Which bill is voted on first? If the first vote passes do they still vote on the second bill? Procedurly this is very confusing to me.
The other bill is a temp CR bill. A number of GOPers will end up voting against a bill they voted for a month ago. That’s bad for the GOP caucus. Still about 10 will vote for the Dem bill. Once you get into bill-a-rama, you’re negotiating and you might as well open up the gov’t with some temp CRs. Once that happens, Trump submits to the legislative process and will pay a heavy price for continuing or re-starting shutdown induced by either his veto or a later decision to let CRs expire without signing anything new into law.
Maybe. I have to say that I’m skeptical. I don’t think McConnell would have agreed to this unless he was pretty confident he could keep his caucus under control and not have them embarrass Trump by voting to reopen the government. If so, that simply reinforces his narrative that his hands are tied and there is nothing for him to do other than to wait for Pelosi and Trump to agree.
I sincerely hope you’re right but I have to say that I think it unlikely, mostly because of what we’ve seen from McConnell. I just don’t see him allowing this unless he already knew the outcome.
Edited to add that, as I said later in this topic, I’d be delighted to be wrong. It’s all speculation at this point; we’ll know soon enough.
This is my number one critism of Dems over the last few years… being silent on things they should be assertively critical of or stating better ways to proceed (I did not say scream)… consistently.
Why Dems haven’t been all over Mitch every single day for his hijacking of senate processes and refusing to bring shutdown bills to a vote just baffles me.
“And she really wants more contracts. Lately she’s been getting drunk and calling me names and I can’t do nothing. I need her daddy’s money!”
My take also. Open the government “for a few weeks”, this is a Trump-gets-to-give-state-of-the-union vanity bill
IMO, the thing that has been the real sticking point for McConnell, that has left him curiously absent from this entire process, insisting that there is no use doing it if Trump won’t sign, is this:
If there are 67 votes for a CR, each of those gets counted from here on out as a potential vote for impeachment. And at that point, the whole dynamic shifts out from under him. And that worries him because he’s complicit.
Indeed. The McConnell senate overrode a veto in September, 2016.
Can you explain this further? What does Congress need to override? Majority in House & Senate?
That is my take also. This one might fail but the Republicans are in a world of hurt and it is getting worse by the day. Could it be Mitch heard the rumors of a pilot strike just in time for the Super Bowl?
Perhaps. Or perhaps they are getting worried with the optics of this for 2020 races if Dems don’t blink here.
At this point, this shutdown has easily cost more than the fake crisis wall funds of $5.7B… the Dems are betting that day this difficult to defend travesty continues.that this will cost Repubs more thuan it will cost them.
Well, I’m glad McConnell held the line on not having show votes. 
The Democrat’s bill should pass 100-0, just like before, but of course it won’t…it may get above 60 though, with the desperate senators who are afraid of being on record voting against opening the government when they go up for election in 2020.
Yup. In fact, it’s entirely possible that the clean CR passes both houses and gets signed by Pres Ind 1. Unlikely, but no less possible than any other unpredictable thing he does.