Donald Trump railed against the establishment on the campaign trail. He was going to Drain The Swamp, shake things up and let everyone know there was a new sheriff in town. Thus far, there's been no drainage (just billionaires) but a lot of shakeup (as in scandal) and perhaps not so surprisingly, zero real legislative wins. After talking about tax reform and healthcare repeal for eight years, congressional Republicans got nothing on the table—not even proposals to rally around. Jennifer Steinhauer writes:
At this point in Barack Obama’s presidency, when Democrats controlled Washington, Congress had passed a stimulus bill totaling nearly $1 trillion to address the financial crisis, approved a measure preventing pay discrimination, expanded a children’s health insurance program, and begun laying the groundwork for major health care and financial regulation bills. President George W. Bush came into office with a congressional blueprint for his signature education act, No Child Left Behind.
Trump’s one legislative victory was a regulatory rollback he signed Tuesday that will reportedly make it easier for oil companies to do business in Russia—not exactly a $800 billion stimulus package that puts America back to work. (UPDATE: Thursday Trump signed bill No. 2, undoing a regulation to protect waterways from pollution.) Beyond doing zip on health care and tax cuts, there's still nothing on the much-hyped infrastructure bill or how to pay for Trump's precious border wall. Apparently, if you elect a guy who never talked policy on the campaign trail, it’s kind of hard to coalesce around, well, policy. And Republicans—who frickin' own the government right now—know just who to blame for their ineptitude: Democrats.
Republicans say things would be going great if only Democrats would allow Mr. Trump his cabinet. Under current Senate rules, Democrats are unable to filibuster any of the nominees, but they have gone out of their way to use procedural tools to drag out the process, partly because many of the president’s choices are contentious, and partly because of their antipathy for Mr. Trump. Their lone victory so far: toppling Mr. Puzder.
“They have undertaken the most unprecedented obstruction of cabinet nominees in history,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said on the Senate floor on Wednesday. The Senate is also preparing for battle over Mr. Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, who has been meeting with senators. “So far, Democrats are gumming up the works,” said Senator Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania. “We will persevere. We will work our way through it.”
LOL. McConnell's worried about "unprecedented obstruction." It's a phrase he ought to know well—he invented it.