Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is like the man who leapt off the Observation Deck of the Empire State Building.
As the man plunged toward the pavement, another man with an office on the 75th floor spotted him, stuck his head out a window and yelled, “How you doing?’’
“So far,’’ the man replied, “so good.’’
Five months into his tenure leading what often is characterized as the world’s greatest deliberative body, McConnell, of Louisville, is quite taken with himself, a sentiment that, truth be told, actually doesn’t separate him from any other politician in Washington.
McConnell feels he’s already found the Rosetta stone on how to operate the upper chamber. Lawmakers have passed a couple bills in a bipartisan manner with limited controversy and he even received a note from his old nemesis, President Obama, thanking him for supporting the nomination of Attorney General Loretta Lynch, a position that placed him at odds with a majority of the members in his own caucus.
“We’ve both chosen to put policy before party — that’s how politics should be conducted, in my view,” McConnell said recently, offering a reflection that differed markedly from the way he conducted business while Republicans served in the minority.
Speaking on the Senate floor May 11, McConnell discussed his recent appearance at the Kennedy Institute in Boston, where he told the crowd that “the real Senate is beginning to get back to work.’’
“I explained how committees are working again so senators can have more of a stake in the legislative process,’’ McConnell said. “I explained how we’re allowing more open floor debate and more amendment opportunities, so senators can better represent the voices of their constituents. And I explained how we’re getting the fundamentals back on track, like passing a budget.’’
All that, he added, doesn’t mean there won’t be challenges ahead or that the upper chamber is entering a new “Era of Good Feelings.’’
“But it does mean we’re beginning to open the Senate back up and in a way that will make shared achievement more likely,’’ he said.
Maybe. But what’s more likely is that McConnell is first taking the easy route before embarking on the thrill-a-minute road where one misstep can send the bus careening down the embankment into a netherworld.
The Senate has, to this point, considered legislation where there’s general agreement on both sides. Lawmakers, for instance commonly felt they should have a say in any pact the U.S. and a handful of European nations arrive at with Iran that could remove some of the economic sanctions that have been imposed on that rogue state. Fair enough.
What they came up with was a bill, which passed 98-1, that requires the president to submit any completed deal to Congress, which could vote to approve or disapprove the agreement within 30 days.
That resolution is a far cry from most treaties that require ratification of two-thirds of the Senate. And it’s a paper tiger – Democrats can filibuster the measure when it comes up for a vote and, if it’s overridden, Obama can issue a veto if the outcome doesn’t suit him.
In other words, the bill contains all the substance of cotton candy.
Speaking of cotton (and you, dear reader, may have just witnessed the greatest segue in all printed literature) it was Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, a member of McConnell’s own party, who tried to scotch the deal and was the lone anti vote. Cotton, a new, strong contender to chair the Senate’s Crazy Caucus, had a cache of amendments he wanted to attach to the measure but he was cut off at the pass by McConnell, who moved to end debate before they could be considered.
So much for “more amendment opportunities’’ as touted in his Senate floor speech.
And then there is the budget bill. The man from Kentucky made a big deal about the Senate passing one for the first time in six years.
“This is something many Americans have been waiting a long time to see,’’ McConnell said. “It’s something they deserve. And it’s just the latest example of a new Congress that’s back to work — back to work on behalf of Americans who work hard and expect Washington to do the same.’’
Yeah, whatever. Something many Americans don’t realize is that the budget resolution that was passed is barely worth the paper it’s printed on – and remember a sheet of paper is worth only a small fraction of a cent. The budget doesn’t exactly fund or defund anything – it’s more or less a target that lawmakers are supposed to aim at before they generally try to avoid it.
The budget is totally a document devised by the majority without any minority input. The primary reason no budget was adopted over the past few years is that Democrats controlled the Senate, Republicans controlled the House and there was no way in heaven those two sides were going to agree on even a fantasy spending plan.
It is a non-binding resolution that doesn’t even go to Obama’s desk for the split second it would take for him to issue a veto. Democrats couldn’t even invoke a filibuster.
Now the GOP controls both chambers and it was free to pass what amounts to a Wonderland package. If it meant anything, Medicare would become privatized, Obamacare would be dead, Wall Street would return to the sinister ways that resulted in the 2008 collapse and the Environmental Protection Agency would have transformed into the sort of vast wasteland it has been trying to address.
The real fight – and there will be one – comes with consideration of the 12 appropriations bills that are supposed to be adopted in time for the beginning of the federal fiscal year that commences on Oct. 1. That’s where McConnell and the Republicans he is leading will attempt to implement their phantasmagorical ideas.
Meanwhile, Democratic Floor Leader Harry Reid, of Nevada, and his fellow party members are lying out there, as Bruce Springsteen once put it, like a killer in the sun. Failure to adopt the 12 appropriations measures in time would result in at least a partial government shutdown – something McConnell has vowed to avoid.
So exactly how, pray tell, does McConnell manage to keep his commitments to the Tea Party folks, maintain close allegiance to the Budget Resolution, kill Obamacare (if the Supreme Court doesn’t do it first) and convince Democrats, including President Obama, to go along – those same Democrats he delighted in messing with over the previous six years?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.
Washington correspondent Bill Straub served 11 years as the Frankfort Bureau chief for The Kentucky Post. He also is the former White House/political correspondent for Scripps Howard News Service. He currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, and writes frequently about the federal government and politics. Email him at williamgstraub@gmail.com.
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