As White House aides to Donald Trump desperately try to contain the fallout from his morally reprehensible response to the death of a woman who was protesting white supremacy in Charlottesville, Virginia, they're also keeping an eye on September and the mound of legislative work that must be completed. Let's just say that it's not looking good. Politico writes:
Senior officials have described the coming month as "brutal," “bad” or “really tough” because of the confluence of complicated issues — but they also say it’s pivotal to getting the presidency back on course.
Or derailing it, depending on how you look at it.
Aides hope to have a better blueprint for how the president wants to proceed on a series of thorny issues — the nation’s debt ceiling, the 2018 federal budget, tax reform, infrastructure spending and perhaps another stab at repealing Obamacare — after a series of meetings in New York this week.
Good luck with that. This White House hasn't put forward a cohesive message on any legislative initiative yet, other than Trump's desire to build the wall using the same taxpayer money he once swore he never would.
Their goal is to partially temper Trump’s expectations ..
They must be joking.
Trump, who is impatient, wants it all done immediately, said people close to the president — and he has ratcheted up pressure on aides in recent weeks, even though he doesn't always engage with the substance of issues.
Trump's aides have supposedly prepped a legislative calendar and want to identify "how he wants to handle the policy debates." Honest to god, they can't be that stupid. Hello (waves arms), Trump doesn't care about "policy debates"—he wants action. Period. The fact that he’s providing zero leadership is beside the point.
Meanwhile, his aides are in total disagreement. Here's where the rubber will meet the road:
The top headaches for Trump’s White House are the Sept. 30 deadlines for raising the debt ceiling and funding the upcoming year’s budget. The White House also wants to push agenda items, like more border money and defense spending, while also trying to curb deficits. White House officials, including [Steve] Bannon, [Marc] Short and chief of staff John Kelly, have told others they expect those fights to be messy.
The outcome that some White House officials fear is a three-month budget extension, only postponing the fight until December. Internally, White House officials are still battling over spending levels in the budget, according to several administration officials. Pressure is likely to rise from the conservative House Freedom Caucus for spending cuts for a budget and the debt ceiling, creating another clash with moderates like the one that tanked health care reform.
Complicating matters is the fact that both Trump and Bannon are angling for money for Trump's precious border wall and they're reportedly willing to go to blows with Congress over it. Also, the GOP’s epic health care fail wasn't epic enough, apparently, and Trump hopes to push it again ... immediately.
Trump wants health care done quickly, even as many in the Senate would like to move on. The president, who is combative, doesn’t like to be seen compromising — and often focuses on an issue only after he has lost and received the public sting. “He thinks if we don’t get health care done, we’re losers,” said one adviser who speaks with him often.
Poor Trump. Only a complete loser would push for resurrecting a complete loser. And if he thinks health care is his only problem, just wait until next month.