Congressional Republicans have apparently decided that the path to 2016 success is campaigning against President Obama, so they are
planning to spend the next 15 months trying to pass stuff that he will be forced to veto. They started Tuesday with a defense authorization conference report, and enough Democrats
voted for cloture that the final bill will probably pass, and head for the president's desk.
The White House, which reiterated the veto threat yesterday, is angry that Republicans are using the annual legislation to pour extra money into the Defense Department, thus bypassing caps that were put in place by sequestration while leaving domestic programs underfunded.
The $612 billion bill also restricts the administration’s ability to transfer suspected terrorists out of Guantanamo Bay, authorizes lethal assistance to Ukraine in its fight against Russian-backed rebels and extends the ban on torture to the CIA.
This vote was 72-36, but that doesn't necessarily reflect a willingness on the part of Democrats to override a veto. Particularly when the veto bait really starts kicking in, including their intention to try to defund Planned Parenthood through the reconciliation budget mechanism. The impetus behind this seems to be largely trying to keep the Republican House together.
In this post-Boehner climate, Republican leaders are eager to show the base they are fighters. They want to prove to restive and angry conservatives that they too are restive and angry, but that their shared ideological priorities cannot be advanced so long as a Democrat is in the White House. GOP leaders muse privately that some high-profile vetoes make it easier for them to compromise with Obama on big-ticket, legacy-shaping legislation.
That's assuming that Obama has any desire at all to work with Republicans on legacy-shaping stuff. Considering how they've obstructed his key long-term legacy—the federal judiciary—that doesn't seem too likely. So mostly it's about base politics. It's a plan that will certainly shore up the Obama-hating base and keep the House safely in Republican hands, but how it helps Republicans in a general election in winning the White House or retaining a Senate majority.