Nothing is more fun in Washington than a good election cleansing followed by the spin doctors trying to define what it means. Tuesday’s bloodletting was no different, but that time is almost over as we move to the practical impact stage.
Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) reported intention to go all out on his nuclear option by jamming as many as 50 more of President’s Obama judicial appointments through the lame-duck session — as the Republican incoming majority helplessly watches him — should send a clear signal to Republicans that there will be no conciliation from the left.
{mosads}If Reid proceeds, the response should be immediate and swift. Rather than also giving the exiled Reid another bite of setting his party’s funding priorities for the rest of the fiscal year, Republicans have to demand that a funding bill only go to March. This allows their newly elected colleagues to play a role in the future fiscal direction of the nation.
Even Karl Rove has figured out that using a defunding strategy is the only available alternative should Obama unleash his own nuclear option by providing “executive amnesty” before the Republicans can pass regular order amnesty.
However, this defund strategy becomes moot once Dec. 11 comes and a new spending bill gets put into place, funding the government through Sept. 30, 2015. All the leverage for reining in the president’s lawlessness (their true mandate) will have been handed away. After all, the power of the purse only exists when the purse strings are closed. Once all the money is allocated, that power has been spent.
The almost naive dream that Senate Republicans would benefit from promises of providing opportunities for the new minority to bring amendments to the floor and other niceties have been met with the cold slap of Reid’s hand. The Democrat minority that Republicans will face fully expects to be back in the majority in 2017, and have no intention to let Republicans govern. For all the “bourbon summit” imagery, there won’t be any Kumbaya moments.
Reid’s duplicity in mouthing words of reconciliation to the media while at the same time planning an unprecedented final court-packing scheme should wake up Senate Republicans to the reality that the Democrats intend to be every bit as obstructionist in the minority as they were in the majority when it came to House-passed economic solutions.
The Democrats are neither chastened, nor any less determined to push their hard left agenda, and no amount of playing Neville Chamberlain with them will change that.
The only real hook the Republicans have at their disposal is a continual funding fight over the next year, while regular order budgeting and funding occurs for fiscal year 2016.
Harry Reid and his cohorts are willing to fight hard for what they believe in. The only question that remains out of the 2014 election is whether Republicans will stand up for what they told voters they believed in.
Manning (@rmanning957) is vice president of public policy and communications for Americans for Limited Government. Contact him at rmanning@getliberty.org.