They just did something kind of right.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is apparently capable of learning from his mistakes. He's decided to give in to House Speaker John Boehner in their
game of chicken over the highway funding bill. Boehner has set the stage to jam the Senate by passing a three-month funding bill, sending it to the Senate and then leaving town. McConnell is now
indicating he'll take it. Not that he has much choice.
Here's the best part, though:
McConnell cast the three-month bill as an effort by the House to move toward adopting their own long-term highway funding bill, which could then be considered in conference with the Senate.
The House “has decided to process a multi-year highway bill of their own” which would then go to conference with the Senate's bill, he said.
Other GOP Senate leaders made similar comments.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said "we're pleased that they seem to agree with us that a multi-year highway bill is important," while Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters the House wouldn't have taken the step if the Senate hadn't pushed to do a long-term bill.
Right, the whole last week of McConnell pushing his bill while the House kept telling him they weren't interested was just a grand scheme to show the House that they really needed to be working on a long-term bill. So it's a huge win for McConnell. Never mind that
House leadership has been planning to do a long-term funding bill along with tax reform for months, and had already passed a five-month funding bill that would stay in place until they had the long-term bill worked out. Whatever gets you through the night, Mitch.
The House is expected to vote on the three-month extension on Wednesday, and the Senate will likely take it up on Thursday. That means everyone can go home for the long August recess pretending like they did something great in keeping highway projects funded through the busy roadtrip vacation season.