It's Tuesday, September 6, and Day 205 since Justice Antonin Scalia died and Mitch McConnell decided no nominee would get any Senate attention: No meetings, no hearings, no votes. It's also Day 174 since Merrick Garland was nominated by President Obama to fill that vacancy. So what's the Senate up to?
They're back in this afternoon, and the Republicans have one goal: do as little as possible in order to sabotage Hillary Clinton's first 100 days. Really. That's what they're planning on doing with these few short weeks they have of real work this month—almost nothing and especially not having hearings or votes on Garland.
Republicans in Congress are planning a light legislative agenda as they return from their long summer break on Tuesday, a strategy some say is designed in part to bog down Hillary Clinton if she becomes president.
It is not uncommon for the Congress to take it slow in an election year and legislative delays could work in Republicans' favor if their nominee Donald Trump takes the White House in November.
But the strategy will also pay dividends if it is Clinton who takes office on Jan. 20. She will be forced to deal with old baggage rather than focus on her agenda of infrastructure investments and immigration and Wall Street reforms.
"If Hillary wins, we force her to waste time, resources, momentum, early good will and political capital—all on cleanup duty," said a senior aide to one Republican senator.
Oh, and what about doing the people's business? HA! What a quaint idea of what we elected our representatives to do. Instead, here's what Republicans are mulling over trying to accomplish in the next three weeks: "scolding the Obama administration for a $400 million payment to Iran in January after Tehran released American prisoners, anti-abortion measures and, once again, proposals to repeal Obama's landmark healthcare law."
Because it can't all be about sticking it to Hillary. Obama is still president for the next five months.
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