Trump, McConnell Set Goals, Limits for 2018 – By James Arkin
& RCP Staff (realclearpolitics.com) / Dec 22 2017
After taking a victory lap as President Trump signed Republicans’ tax reforms into law Friday morning, the president and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had a word in common as they looked ahead to 2018: bipartisanship.
McConnell, in his final press conference of the year, said 2017 had been “pretty partisan” in the upper chamber as the party’s top two legislative goals – the tax overhaul, which passed, and Obamacare repeal, which failed – received zero Democratic votes. The Kentucky Republican said he hoped to find more consensus going into the second year of Trump’s presidency.
“I don’t think most of our Democratic colleagues want to do nothing, and there are areas, I think, where we can get bipartisan agreement,” he said.
Trump, meanwhile, seemed eager to kick off 2018 by trying to find areas of consensus with Democrats. He tweeted Friday morning:
Later, in the Oval Office as he signed the tax legislation, Trump added that he believes there will be “tremendous Democrat support on infrastructure” and said it would be the “easiest” agenda item.
McConnell also cited two areas specifically where he sees some consensus. The first is a solution for the young immigrants given protected status under an executive order from President Obama, which Trump rescinded earlier this year, effective in March.
McConnell promised that if a bipartisan agreement were reached, it would be put on the Senate floor in January. He also mentioned a bill rolling back some Dodd-Frank financial regulations, which has support from a handful of Democratic senators.
McConnell said he, Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan would likely meet in early January to flesh out next year’s agenda. But he also hinted that some of the more difficult, or controversial, items might not be on Congress’ to-do list. Sen. Lindsey Graham said Thursday he expects to continue working on his legislation, along with Sen. Bill Cassidy, to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
McConnell said he wished them well, but threw cold water on the idea of the Senate revisiting that policy.
“51-49 is a pretty tight majority,” he said, referencing the one fewer seat Republicans will hold after Democrat Doug Jones of Alabama is seated early next year. “We’re going to be moving to bills that have enough votes to pass.”
McConnell also suggested that he had little interest in pursuing a partisan push to overhaul entitlements, something that Ryan and many conservatives in the House have said would be at the top of their agenda next year. Either a partisan approach or bipartisan consensus on any entitlement changes would be an extremely heavy lift for lawmakers in an election year.
“The sensitivity of entitlements is such that you almost have to have a bipartisan agreement in order to achieve a result,” McConnell said.
He and Trump, who publicly and privately sparred in the summer following the Obamacare repeal failure, also had some praise for each other as they rounded out the first year of their partnership.
Trump, in the Oval Office, said McConnell had been “fantastic” and “worked so hard” on the tax package. McConnell, who has criticized the president’s Twitter habit, said he was coming around after Trump tweeted praise for him this week.
“I’m warming up to the tweets, actually,” he said.
PB/TK – Of course GOP’ers know they have to work across the aisle with DEM’ers after losing a seat. But DEM’ers need to realize they do not hold all the cards and still must work
