Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is reprising his disastrous Patriot Act strategy in a much bigger fight—funding government. So far, it's McConnell's way or the highway and he's refusing a
request from Democrats for a budget summit with leaders of both chambers and the White House to break the sequester and start funding government at sustainable levels.
McConnell’s dismissal creates a fiscal standoff in the Senate months earlier than expected over whether spending limits, known as the sequester, should be lifted.
Democratic leaders are bringing up the issue now to put pressure on McConnell to agree to raise defense and nondefense spending levels in tandem. They hope to get a head start on the blame game both sides expect at the end of September when government funding is due to expire.
Some Republicans have signaled support for lifting the sequester, but such a deal would provoke a fight with grassroots conservatives that McConnell would like to avoid. A deal to lift the ceilings would bust budget caps set by the 2011 Budget Control Act, which McConnell often cites as a major Republican accomplishment.
McConnell insists that a summit is not necessary because he is working with House Republicans and they've already come to agreement with each other on defense spending levels. "We're going to move forward and see what our friends on the other side want to do," he said and by "friends on the other side" he means House Republicans. Democrats don't count. McConnell, just as he did unsuccessfully with the Patriot Act, is
figuring that he can use the national security card against Democrats to break them, "daring Democrats to vote against money supporting troops and securing the nation."
For their part, Democratic leadership is holding tough, with Sen. Patty Murray setting out their strategy in a speech later today, insisting that Republicans will have to come to Democrats with a deal if they want to avoid a government shutdown. She's couching it in extremely reasonable terms. "Honestly, this doesn’t have to be this difficult," Murray's prepared remarks say. "Working across the aisle to set topline budget numbers, and then working together to fill that budget out with spending bills is pretty much the least we should be able to do here in Congress."
The smart—and responsible—thing Democrats are doing is starting this fight early, well before an actual shutdown will happen. That gives them time to set the narrative. It's also smart to do it on the heels of McConnell's big loss on the Patriot Act, when his leadership is shaky and they've got momentum. They just have to hang tough, and so far it seems like they have a united front.