House Passes Bill to Keep Federal Government Open; Fate in Senate Unclear

“We understand that. But, he should be prepared to fight the Republican establishment where they disagree with him”.

Now Democrats are trying to put pressure on Republicans by pulling Trump into the issue. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., told reporters Wednesday. “Now we’re going to tell them in January, ‘You’re going to lose it in April'”.

Trump campaigned heavily on protecting coal miners, which helped him win states like West Virginia, Kentucky and OH by large margins. Overwhelmingly, white working class men and women, who used to vote as blue-collar Democrats, went to Trump, finalizing their years-long transition from blue to red. The organizations solicited more than 1 million petition signatures from activists demanding that Trump, Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) keep Medicare intact. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. “Who’s for the working people?”.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Hours to a government shutdown, coal-state Senate Democrats blocked swift action on a stopgap spending bill over benefits for retired miners and pressed President-elect Donald Trump, a self-proclaimed coal champion, to intervene with Republicans. “And that’s really a bad outcome”, said state Senator Daniel Squadron, whose district covers parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn. 30, instead of President Barack Obama.

And even as Republicans seek to paper over their disagreements with Trump, Democrats hope to exploit them to divide the GOP, and make common cause with Trump themselves where possible. Trump nearly certainly won’t be receiving similar treatment.”It is always the intention, at the start of a new administration, to have a smooth transition”. In other cases, like with the tariffs, they share the same general goals and can compromise on how to get there, some Republicans said. On Capitol Hill, they see Republican majorities composed mostly of members elected by larger margins than Trump won in their states, and led by experienced, committed conservatives with a clearly articulated agenda.

“Two days after the election I called their transition guy, head of trade, running trade, talked to him at length, sent him a letter about I’m willing to help renegotiate NAFTA and pull out of TPP and more aggressively do trade enforcement”, said Sherrod Brown, referring to the two major trade deals that Trump has promised to scrap or renegotiate.

Manchin said they aren’t pursuing a government shutdown per say, but would like more time to negotiate the provision. The state House is still Democrat controlled, but Republicans picked up seven seats, so even here we might start seeing some bipartisanship and compromise. The Senate’s top Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, delivered a long farewell speech. The Reid Rule is now in effect.

Democrats groused about the provision to make it easier for the Senate to process Mattis’ nomination next year.

“I’m very anxious that we just signed the Democratic Party’s death certificate for the next decade and a half”, said Mr. Schrader, co-chairman of the Blue Dog Coalition, a centrist group.

Manchin described as “inhumane” and a “non-starter” a four-month extension of the insurance that’s in the current spending bill. So along with the moral depravity Obama’s egregious TPP/TTIP/TiSA initiatives, the Democratic Party’s tepid campaign strategy proved DISASTROUS in the 2014 elections and DISASTROUS AGAIN in 2016 (especially once Obama announced with great confidence that he would pass the TPP during the “lame session” of Congress this year).

On the latest episode of The Weeds, Vox’s Matt Yglesias and Sarah Kliff discuss Trump’s transition team, go deep on Price’s health care proposals, and try to figure out the policy beliefs of Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin.

May they all heed the political demise of former Senator Tom Daschle, a powerful red state Democrat forcibly retired by his constituents for his quarterbacking of Bush-era obstructionism in 2004.