Make A Deal
“Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable – the art of the next best” – Otto Von Bismarck
There’s a deal to be made, a Christmas political “miracle.” There’s an agreement that can be reached between the President and the Congressional Democrats, a deal made necessary because there can’t be an “inside trade” within the Republicans. So Trump should bargain, but instead he demeaned “Chuck and Nancy” (imagine if they called him Donny.)
Yesterday we had the spectacle of the President and Vice President (if you could wake him up) putting on a demonstration, rather than a negotiation. The in-coming Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and the Minority Leader of the Senate, Chuck Schumer, were brought in for a public “humiliation.” They were ambushed; anticipating an actual meeting where they could make a “deal,” they were instead brought in for public abuse by the President.
They gave as good as they got, maybe better. President Trump promised that a government shutdown would be “on him,” taking responsibility for the possibility of failing to pay millions of employees and closing government services at Christmas. In our recent political history, no one has “won” a shutdown. But a government shutdown at Christmas wasn’t his goal for that meeting.
President Trump is not foolish. Looming over his immediate future are indictments from the Special Counsel Robert Mueller, perhaps including his own family members. He knows that the specter of impeachment is also on the horizon (and promises a revolt of it occurs.) His current goal is not to solve government problems, but to solidify his base, to keep the 30-40% of Americans who see him as doing a “good job” in his corner.
And he hit all the right buttons in yesterday’s “meeting.” According to him, he is for protecting America, the Democrats aren’t. He is for keeping drugs, terrorists and criminals out of the United States, the Democrats must want them in. And he is able to argue with the Jewish minority leader from New York City and the woman House leader from San Francisco. Don’t think he misses the optics of that; there are a significant number of his supporters that buy all of those stereotypes of hate.
Nancy Pelosi shrugged off Michele Obama’s “they go low, we go high” advice. Pelosi compared Trump’s failed wall to his “manhood” (as Colbert said, he can’t erect either one.) She can dish it out if she needs to.
It’s all about $3.4 billion, the difference between the $1.6 billion in the current legislation on the table and the $5 billion Trump want’s for his wall. And while $3.4 billion is significant, there are quite a few things the Democrats would take for that amount.
But Republicans still have majorities in both the House and the Senate, Paul Ryan is still Speaker, so why not just make a deal among the Republicans and tell the Democrats to “kiss off?” Because there isn’t a majority of Republicans who are willing to spend the $3.4 billion either. They are “all of a sudden” shocked with the incredibly huge deficit, almost a trillion this year. The fact that they created this debt with their own tax cut last year, and that the promised 5% economic growth to cover the lost revenue didn’t happen, well, that doesn’t seem to matter. Now they just have to cut, cut, cut spending.
So President Trump was right, he needs Democrats to join with him to solve the problem. The Republican “Freedom Caucus” in the House will dramatically oppose the spending, and Senators Paul and Cruz will grandstand in the Senate. It will take the Democrats to get the work done.
No one really knows how the game is played
The art of the trade
How the sausage gets made
We just assume that it happens
But no one else is in
The room where it happens
(lyrics from “In the Room Where it Happens – Hamilton)
So, IF the President can get over his need to excite his base, and IF he isn’t so committed to changing the subject from the Mueller Investigation that he WANTS to shut down the government, there is a deal to be made.
The last time the President, Senator Schumer and Congressman Pelosi met on in the White House, they reached a deal. The issue was DACA, the Dreamers, over 800,000 Americans who were raised here, but because of their parents’ actions, are not citizens. They reached a deal giving those Dreamers a status, and a chance to be Americans. And then White House Advisor Stephen Miller and Chief of Staff Kelly made the President “take it back.”
It’s been over a year since that meeting; a year where nothing has been done to advance the Dreamers’ cause. Put it on the table, let the leaders of the Congress and the President engage in the “…art of the trade” and make some sausage. If it costs an extra $3.4 billion for a Wall we don’t need – and keeps the government from closing down, it’s worth the cost.
No one else needs to be “…in the room where it happens.” No one needs to take “the blame;” there would be credit enough for all. President Trump put his name to a book, “The Art of the Deal.” Show some “art” Mr. President: make a deal.
