Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appears to be operating under the assumption that "regular order"—the Senate doing stuff like passing spending bills—will be enough to make people forget that the Republican Party’s standard-bearer is Donald Trump. So he's got the Senate working on spending bills that will likely falter in the House, and at the same time get bogged down by his own Republicans on the floor.
With his narrow majority under siege in November, McConnell is digging through the procedural playbook to try and pass annual appropriations bills that have been neglected for 22 years. They face a steep path to becoming law with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) proposing a tough amendment on Iran and House conservatives reluctant to deal with fiscal legislation that, in their view, simply spends too much.
But McConnell wants to prove Democrats wrong and show that Republicans can keep Congress running more smoothly than they ever did.
There's a few problems there for McConnell—Sen. Cotton, for one. Ted Cruz is back now, too, and there's little reason to believe he'll decide to play nice. House Republicans are another problem. They can't come to any agreement on spending and are very unlikely to actually pass any of these bills McConnell has the Senate laboring over.
But the primary problem for McConnell in trying to make like the Senate is doing its job? Ignoring a Supreme Court vacancy! Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) says it all:
"If they're going to say: Yes, they support Donald Trump and they support his appointing the next Supreme Court justice, but on the other hand they moved a [spending] bill? I look forward to the opportunity to prosecute that case with the voters."
Indeed.
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