GOP rift threatens Trump agenda
— The Republican Party’s longstanding ideological divisions were laid bare in very public fashion last week, sinking President Donald Trump’s Obamacare repeal plan and threatening other elements of his agenda.
The health care bill fell victim to bickering between two competing groups in Trump’s party: a band of grass roots conservatives, centered around the House Freedom Caucus, who routinely buck leadership; and establishment-leaning moderates who are more likely to seek consensus over confrontation.
The president’s failure to get them together and bring the American Health Care Act across the finish line highlighted how the internal fracturing has yet to heal.
That could spell trouble for the party in power, as Washington gears up for several legislative battles in the months ahead.
“Like Southern California, the GOP has many fault lines,” John Pitney, a professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna College, told AFP.
“They run in multiple directions and any one of them could cause an earthquake.”
Tremors are already being felt. Congress must pass a spending bill by April 28 that funds federal operations, or government could tumble into a shutdown.
It will also begin debate in coming months on raising the U.S. debt ceiling.
The factions are often far apart on such issues, with conservatives balking at debt ceiling hikes and moderates far more willing to consider compromise on social issues when it comes to the budget.
Disputes between the two factions is nothing new.
In 2010, ecstatic grassroots Tea Party candidates rode into Congress on a wave of anti-establishment fervor, as Republicans seized control of the House of Representatives.
The following year, bitter Republican battles over raising the debt ceiling nearly drove the United States into a calamitous default.
In October 2013, rancorous fights over spending led to a 17-day government shutdown, largely blamed on conservatives like Senator Ted Cruz.