Now that the heavy lifting is done and tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are all but a done deal, what's next on Washington's agenda?
White House officials, meanwhile, expressed hope of sealing a deal swiftly, perhaps by midweek, and clearing the Congressional calendar for a long list of other priorities that they aim to accomplish by the end of the year, including ratification of the New Start arms treaty with Russia and the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for gay service members as part of a wider Pentagon policy bill.
So at least there will be some good news out of this so-far disappointing lame duck session, right? Not if the Republican leadership has anything to say about it:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Sunday that Congress is unlikely to vote this year on repealing the military’s ban on openly gay service members because of time constraints.
And of course it's not just time constraints:
Asked whether he thinks there are enough votes to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell,” McConnell deferred to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who is leading the opposition to repealing the policy.
“I intend to follow his lead,” McConnell said.
They don't care about the Pentagon Study Group's report, or what the majority of Americans want, and they don't care about being on the wrong side of history -- Republicans just want to run out the clock on repealing "don't ask, don't tell."
Will Senate Democrats let them? We should get our answer in the coming days -- after the tax cut capitulation is complete, if we start to hear about any sort of compromise regarding the Defense Authorization Bill ("we've got to get this done," and "support the troops!"), then we'll know the answer is yes.