For years, Democrats have watched Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell deploy ultra-partisan legislative tactics to outdo them in everything from negotiating the financial cliff to closing the door. seat on the Supreme Court.
But this week, Senate Republicans may have gotten a taste of their own drug — and it didn’t go well.
On Wednesday, McConnell and 13 Republicans joined all Democrats in passing a sweeping bill that invests in U.S. high-tech manufacturing, a major bipartisan victory.
Just an hour later, after more than a year of pause in negotiations, Senator Joe Manchin (DW.V.) announced he had reached an agreement with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on a package climate investment, tax increase. for the rich and reforming prescription drugs.
McConnell said in June that Republicans would hold the manufacturing bill hostage if Democrats went ahead with their broader bill, which would pass a partisan voting process known as peace. prize. Manchin then poured cold water on the idea of passing a sweeping bill, and Republicans expected Democrats to pursue a discount package that included only drug price reforms.
Apparently, Manchin never left the table. And Republicans, along with the rest of the world, found out when the senator released a statement declaring support for the party’s line bill — minutes after the GOP gave up leverage.
Senator Mike Braun (R-IN) told The Daily Beast on Thursday. “There has to be a little bit of trust. I guess, someone, it looks like they misunderstood or things didn’t turn out the way it should. “
“It was a sour taste,” continued Braun, “for some of us.”
The GOP senator, who trained at Oxford in the minds of people, Senator John Kennedy (R-LA), was especially blunt in an interview with Politico. “To me, it looks like we’ve hit a rough patch,” he said. “It’s a Louisiana word that means ‘twisted’.”
For Democrats, the GOP crisis is staggering. Schumer and his caucuses never reached an agreement to drop the party’s plan for a package to pass the high-tech manufacturing bill.
Democratic lawmakers have questioned how they could get Republicans into a deal they never really cut.
“I really don’t know what they’re talking about,” said Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT). “Nobody in the Republican convention should be surprised that we want to pass legislation that cuts drug prices and addresses climate change.”
But the timeline of events takes a distinct Machiavellian twist. For some Democrats, it stole something from which their longtime Communist tormentor in the Senate might have happily retreated.
Representative John Yarmuth (D-KY), who has alternated working and fighting with McConnell for many years, said he is “certainly pessimistic” about ever seeing the day when Democrats will overtake McConnell.
“I’m happy to see it, and I’m glad they’re acting so pragmatic and purposeful,” Yarmuth said. “You’d think after following him for years, they might pick up something.”
McConnell’s office declined to comment for this story. But asked on Wednesday by a reporter whether he had been duped, McConnell largely ignored the question and instead attacked the agreement Manchin and Schumer had reached.
“What’s happening here is that Manchin and Schumer have come to a deal that is completely appalling and completely unnecessary because of the inflation that the Democrats have created,” he said. “So that’s the problem we’re working on, and it’s an unsolvable disaster for the country and we’re going to fight it as hard as we can.”
Intentional or not, the aftermath of Wednesday’s events will affect in a number of ways important to both sides.
In the span of 24 hours, Democrats have gone from whining their agenda to celebrating a major bipartisan victory on the economy and speeding toward a legislative milestone on climate and politics. Tax books ignored them for over a year.
Republicans, apparently caught, decided to retaliate by opposing bills many of them had previously supported. For example, in June, nearly all Republicans voted to pass a long-awaited bill to expand health care benefits to veterans exposed to hazardous substances. In the work.
After Manchin released his statement on Wednesday announcing a deal, the Senate held a vote on the final passage of that bill — and 41 GOP senators revolted, blocking it. the law at its final hurdle.
Democrats, along with veterans and their supporters, were surprised that Republicans — many of whom had supported the bill — would vote to reject health care. health of servicemen appears to be a response to the Democratic maneuver.
“Republicans today are essentially holding veterans hostage because they are crazy,” Manchin said on Thursday.
Other bills now at risk: Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) told HuffPost on Thursday that the climate agreement and tax law could bolster GOP support for a bill to legislate same-sex marriage that has been prepared for a bipartisan vote in the Senate.
For McConnell, this week marks the second time in the past year that a signature hardball threat seems to have backfired.
Last year, when Congress needed to enhance the federal government’s borrowing authority — and avoid a catastrophic default — McConnell told Democrats they needed to do it themselves, by 50 votes. , instead of 60 votes as usual.
When Democrats called him a bluff, McConnell agreed to a two-month extension of the debt limit and promised no Republican help in the next round. But in December, he provided enough GOP votes to agree to a one-time exception to the film, allowing Democrats to raise their own debt limits.
Both Schumer and Manchin downplayed the conspicuous timing of this week’s events. When asked about it on Thursday, Schumer told reporters he and Manchin simply “wanted to move on as quickly as possible” and that they only went public after the legislation was passed by a congressional committee.
When asked at a news conference if he could pull off “a quick fight” on Republicans, Manchin said, “I certainly hope they don’t feel that way.”
Manchin is known for his good relations with his Republican colleagues, but there is little love lost between him and McConnell, according to a Democratic aide.
Manchin began feuding with the GOP leader not long after he arrived in the Senate, when both launched dueling lobbying campaigns in 2012 to get their local universities to participate in the Big 12 conference on football. (Manchin won.)
When McConnell became majority leader, Manchin was known publicly and privately for the radical, extreme partisan manner in which he ran the Senate. Most recently, Manchin harshly criticized McConnell for blocking an independent commission to investigate on January 6.
“When he reached the settlement, Manchin probably didn’t think about the McConnell cutlery. That’s not who he is,” the Democratic aide said. “But in a private moment, he could sit back and smile and think he got one for WVU.”
