Happy ending
Washington’s open for business again
THE UNITED States now has a working government again thanks to a bipartisan coalition that found a way to end a three-day shutdown in Washington that should never have begun in the first place.
The final version of the bill that reopened the federal government’s doors should get hundreds of thousands of federal employees back to work. It also saved the Children’s Health Insurance Program and cut out some $31 billion in health-care taxes. Including a foolish levy on medical devices that threatened not only the country’s fiscal but physical health.
So what’s not to like? Nothing, really, but Gentle Reader can be assured that the bitter-enders in both parties will come up with a long and dubious list of drummed-up objections to this happy ending. The bill to let the government govern again got through the Senate by a vote of 81 to 18 and passed the House 266 to 150. The wonder isn’t that so many favored this sensible and overdue step, but that so many opposed it. That willful minority could offer rationales but not reasons for their last stand.
But what about the Dreamers, the young people who were brought to this country when they were too young to know what was going on? The leader of the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate—Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell—expressed only relief at this reprieve for reason.
“I’m glad we can finally get back to work here,” he said, noting that the shutdown had been a “manufactured crisis” marked by “damaging partisan theatrics,” and that, if it’s the fate of Dreamers that was holding things up, the Senate would consider the whole issue of immigration in the coming weeks with everybody getting a fair say. In short, this political extravaganza had been unnecessary if its object had been just to get the country’s attention.
The upshot of this show was that the Democrats and Republicans had faced off in Congress and this time, lo and behold, the Democrats blinked. Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri—a state that Donald Trump carried in the last presidential election despite her best efforts for the Democratic ticket—put it this way when discussing Sen. McConnell’s leadership: “Frankly, our trust is more with our colleagues, that they will hold him accountable.” She’s up for re-election this year and has come out fighting, stoking suspicion of Republicans whenever she can.
Speaking of being suspect, whenever a politician begins a statement with the word “Frankly” it raises questions. As if he—or in this case she—wasn’t frank ordinarily. And that candor is the exception, not the rule, that governs her statements and actions.
As for this small, wonderful state just south of Missouri, our congressional delegation greeted the news that the shutdown itself had been shut down with admirable approval. Congressman Steve Womack of Rogers, who chairs the House Budget Committee, described the late and unlamented shutdown as “very disruptive. Extremely unfortunate. I don’t think we should allow the appropriations of the federal government to get bogged down in a dispute over non-related partisan issues.” Hear, hear.
By all means, have Congress debate the issue before it and use its power over the purse to make its point. But its point should be germane to the issue, not just a general hissy fit. There’s no telling what collateral damage Congress can inflict when it wanders off the point.
French Hill, the Republican congressman from Little Rock, noted that he’d “had a parent of a young person . . . call and express their displeasure that their young man is in Afghanistan on the front lines protecting American interests and not being paid.” That’s no way to treat the best of us. No matter what side of the aisle a member of Congress is on, he should be ashamed of himself if he had anything to do with this fiasco. Let’s hope it’s all part of the past and not a sign of congressional (non) performances to come.
AMONG those not celebrating the shutdown of the shutdown were ambitious pols in the Senate like Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and Cory Booker of New Jersey, along with the tireless and by now tiresome Bernie Sanders of Vermont—who could never decide if he was an independent or a Democrat, though he tends to end up voting like a Democrat.
At this point, the American voter may be tempted to wish a pox on all their houses while he tends to his own business. The business of Congress, meanwhile, is neglected while politicians like these practice their political gamesmanship.