Two Democratic Senate leaders, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin, jolted the political world this week with an unexpected announcement: They’d reached a landmark agreement on an ambitious climate/taxes/health care package. It’s not yet clear if the bill will pass, but it could prove to be one of the most important legislative breakthroughs in recent memory.
Republicans aren’t handling the developments especially well.
To hear GOP lawmakers tell it, Democrats unveiled the compromise deal after a bipartisan vote on an unrelated measure — a bill Republicans intended to hold hostage until they were convinced the reconciliation package was dead. When they helped pass the other legislation, only to learn soon after that the dead bill was alive after all, they felt suckered.
But congressional Republicans aren’t just licking their wounds, they’re also lashing out wildly. On Wednesday night, for example, GOP senators rejected a burn pits bill for sick veterans — legislation dozens of those same senators recently voted for — as part of an apparent tantrum. House Republican leaders threw a related fit.
HuffPost reported that the party’s list of targets appears likely to grow.
Sen. Susan Collins, one of a handful of GOP senators working to garner support in her party for a bill to codify gay marriage, said the Democrats’ surprise embrace of a tax and climate change bill made her job much harder. “I just think the timing could not have been worse and it came totally out of the blue,” the Maine senator told HuffPost Thursday.
The Maine Republican added, “After we just had worked together successfully on gun safety legislation, on the CHIPS bill, it was a very unfortunate move that destroys the many bipartisan efforts that are under way.”
In other words, because Democrats are trying to advance their popular agenda in a way the GOP doesn’t like, Republicans are prepared to punish veterans and possibly reject marriage protections for American families.
In fact, as yesterday progressed, GOP rhetoric grew increasingly hysterical. The conservative Washington Times, for example, quoted Sen. John Cornyn saying, “I can only speak for this senator when I say this betrayal is an absolute declaration of political warfare. To look you in the eye and tell you one thing and to do another is absolutely unforgivable.”
But there was no deal to break. No handshake agreement. No one lied. No one abandoned their word. No one ignored any rules or violated any institutional norms.
To hysterically describe two Democratic leaders reaching a compromise agreement on their own party’s agenda as “an absolute declaration of political warfare” isn’t wrong, it’s bizarre.
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, meanwhile, added on Fox News, “Well, it was obviously a double-cross by Joe Manchin. Just two weeks ago he said he wasn’t gonna support a bill like this. He’s been saying for months that he wouldn’t support so many of the provisions in this bill, he called them gimmicks or smoke and mirrors budgeting, but now he’s going to apparently support all of them.”
The logical progression of the Arkansan’s argument was amazing:
- Manchin said he planned to oppose a bill like this.
- Then he negotiated the terms of the bill he could support.
- Republicans didn’t know he might do that, so now they’re really mad.
As for the idea that Democrats should’ve announced the agreement before the vote on the unrelated CHIPS and Science Act, this isn’t much of an argument, either. In effect, GOP senators are arguing, “What you should’ve done is announce the deal sooner, so we could’ve derailed an unrelated and worthwhile bill that both parties support.”
If Republicans want to argue that Democrats pulled a fast one by outmaneuvering the GOP’s obstructionist plans, fine. Parties sometimes get outmaneuvered. It stings a bit, but this is standard legislative strategy.
It’s not a “betrayal.” Or a “double-cross.” It didn't "destroy" anything. And for goodness’ sake, it’s certainly not “an absolute declaration of political warfare.”
It’s tough to say with confidence whether Republicans are seriously outraged by the Manchin/Schumer deal or simply pretending that their feelings are hurt. Either way, their whining is incoherent.