Meanwhile, Republicans are furious with Cruz. "I don't see what we're achieving here. I just don't," said Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). The Senate eventually passed the spending bill late Saturday. The inability of the Republican caucus in the Senate to unite on parliamentary strategy raises questions about how effective the G.O.P. majority will be next year. Frank Thorp V for NBC.
DRUM: What Cruz was trying to achieve was completely symbolic. His resolution never would have passed, and wouldn't have changed anything even if it had. But it had the effect of helping Obama. Mother Jones.
Obama’s Boehner Bailout
E.J. Dionne Jr.
How often will President Obama come to House Speaker John Boehner’s rescue even when Republican leaders aren’t willing to give much in return? And does the president want to preside over a split in his party?
These are among the questions raised by the dramatic budget battle that came close to breaching the deadline for a government shutdown.
But along the way, something quite unexpected happened: Progressive Democrats nearly derailed the bill themselves to block two provisions sneaked into it that had nothing to do with taxing and spending. One undercut the financial reforms of the Dodd-Frank law by loosening its restrictions on banks’ ability to use taxpayer-insured funds from depositors for some potentially risky transactions involving derivatives.The budget bill won final passage in the Senate Saturday night amid genuine rage inside the Republican Party over the usual theatrics organized by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.).
Former representative Barney Frank warned that tossing such a provision into a must-pass bill would provide “a road map for the stealth unwinding of financial reform.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who once again took the lead for the party’s populists, called it “the worst of government for the rich and powerful.”
The other provision further tore apart campaign finance laws by allowingbig donors to contribute up to $1,555,200 to a political party committee over a two-year election cycle, and a couple to give up to $3,110,400.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) nicely captured the government-for-sale message sent by the two components. “You’ve got the quid and the quo in one bill,” he said.
Typically, Democrats are more anxious than Republicans to avoid government shutdowns, which has the effect of strengthening those who use shutdown threats as a form of hostage-taking. This time, Boehner was operating from weakness. He desperately wanted to avoid drama but could not pass the bill with Republican votes alone, since his tea party members wanted to pick a fight with the president over his executive order on immigration. On the final House tally late Thursday night, Boehner lost 67 members of his party.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi thought the circumstances gave the progressive holdouts a chance to force the offending provisions out of the bill. But before they had any chance of testing their newfound leverage, the White House issued a statement calling for passage of the bill while criticizing the provisions in question. The administration feared scuttling a deal it saw as far better than anything the new Congress would produce. Obama went to work rounding up Democratic votes for Boehner.
Pelosi, one of Obama’s most loyal allies, wasn’t pleased. “I’m enormously disappointed that the White House feels that the only way they can get a bill is to go along with this,” she said on the House floor.
In the end, enough Democrats, particularly those who negotiated the appropriations — agreed with the president and were able to push the bill through. But Democrats who think their party’s resurgence depends on breaking with classic special-interest logrolling sent a message that they are not to be trifled with — and the fractiousness among Republicans in the House and Senate suggests that Democratic votes may count for something next year.
Moreover, Obama will not always be able to count on the Senate to block Republican bills he objects to. To sustain his vetoes, he will have to depend on House loyalists — some of the very people he disappointed this time around.
Pelosi played down such problems in an interview on Friday, insisting that the differences with the White House this time were primarily over short-term tactics. In trying to get a budget through, she said, the president and his lieutenants understandably wanted to “clear the decks” so the administration and Congress could start fresh next year.
“I am very confident in the White House and how we move forward,” she said, adding that the resistance of so many Democrats sent a signal to Boehner that there are limits on what she and her colleagues will accept, particularly when it comes to undercutting financial reform.
Boehner and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell will no doubt reflect on this close call. Senate Democratic leaders, soon facing minority status, may have learned that they will have to take both their own progressive wing and their House colleagues much more seriously. But this should also be a wake-up call for the president who, in his last two years, needs to be far more attentive to how he deals with Congress, and especially with his allies.
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