As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spins away on his health care hamster wheel with visions of tax reform dancing through his head, other Republican lawmakers are a tad frustrated the GOP-controlled Congress isn't getting much of anything done. They're also uniquely worried about the budget deal that's coming due in September with zero preparation being done in advance.
Let's take a turn with Politico through the halls of Congress, shall we? Oh, there's Lindsey Graham. Wonder what he thinks.
“I’m very frustrated ... we’re going to do all these things by Sept. 30? Give me a break. We’re going to cut taxes, pass health care, set aside sequestration?” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). “We should have an agenda. We know we’re not going to pass a budget with sequestration caps. I’m not.”
Darn those sequestration spending caps House Republicans demanded back in 2011 as a condition of voting to raise the debt ceiling. Now it's gonna take actual leadership and forethought and negotiation—otherwise known as legislating—to change them.
Oh wait, there's Georgia Sen. David Perdue. Wonder how he feels about all that advance work on the budget.
“When are we going to do the appropriations? We’re not talking about that,” moaned Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.). “It’s gonna go to a [continuing resolution] or an omnibus. We get an up-or-down vote on the whole thing, which is what I’m yelling about.”
Ok, so there's no GOP budget, no funding levels, no appropriations process—what could go wrong? The always upbeat GOP Sen. John McCain saw this whole budget disaster coming from a mile off.
The famously gruff Arizona Republican fumed in an interview late last month, calling his party’s governing plans a “train wreck” set to hit Congress in September.
“Everything piles up, we go to the edge of the cliff, shut down the government, then we have an omnibus or a continuing resolution where we can vote yes or no. No amendments, no improvements, nothing,” McCain added.
Hmm. Surely the leadership has an explanation. Hey you, Sen. John Thune,—what’s your take?
...on big-ticket bills, the Senate “had to wait on the House.”
“So now, we’re in the throes of trying to figure out health care reform,” Thune said. “I think we’ll get onto eventually the tax reform but we have to do a budget to do that, and we’ve got to start the appropriations process.”
Sen. Orrin Hatch pointed his finger at another culprit.
“We’ve done an awful lot, but the Democrats have stopped almost everything else. Anything,” complained Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
Man, those Democrats, just cuz they're entirely in the minority doesn't mean they couldn't save us from ourselves.
Wait, wait, here's something novel from the GOP's No. 2, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.
“The leader has asked the committee chairmen to process bills that we can pick up and hopefully have bipartisan support.”
Wow, bills that can attract support from across the aisle. Revolutionary. We'll believe it when we see it.
In the meantime, good luck with health care, tax reform, the 2018 budget, and raising the debt ceiling. Sounds like McConnell’s really got a handle on things.