Expect Trump-Pelosi vow of bipartisanship to last a week
The election is over. Let there be peace. Yeah, right. The reigning king and newly crowned queen in Washington said some nice things — among other things — after Tuesday's midterm election. They stressed a desire to work together for the American people, regardless of political differences.
“Unity. Unity for our country,” is what Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi of California said at a victory party Tuesday night.
“We will strive for bipartisanship,” said Pelosi, the favorite to become House speaker now that her party is back in control. “We will have a responsibility to find our common ground where we can, stand our ground where we can't, but we must try. We'll have a bipartisan marketplace of ideas that makes our democracy strong.”
During a news conference Wednesday, President Donald Trump also called for the parties to “put partisanship aside.”
“I really respected what Nancy said last night about bipartisanship and getting together and uniting,” he said. “She used the word uniting and she used the bipartisanship statement, which is so important because that's what we should be doing.”
I can't imagine that happening. There's too much animosity between Democrats and Republicans. You could see it even as they talked about cooperating next year. Their comments came amid trash talk and pot shots.
Pelosi lauded her party's volunteers, saying they “saw what this GOP Congress was doing and refused to stand still.”
She took a jab at the president and Senate Republican leader, too.
“Today is more than about Democrats and Republicans. It's about restoring the Constitution's checks and balances to the Trump administration,” she said to cheers from the crowd. “It's about stopping the GOP and Mitch McConnell's assault on Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act and the healthcare of 130 million Americans living with preexisting medical conditions.”
At his news conference, Trump criticized Democrats as “very weak on crime.” He said some Democrats are “angry people.”
“I call them the angry Democrats,” he said.
With one legislative chamber solidly under the control of each party now — Republicans picked up a few seats in the Senate to increase their margin there — there are two scenarios for what could happen in Washington for the next few years.
The government could come to complete gridlock, with the Democratic House refusing to consider anything from the Republican Senate, and the Republican Senate refusing to consider anything from the Democratic House. Or, the parties — particularly the party leaders — could recognize the need to find middle ground.
Trump said he is confident the latter will occur.
“It really could be a beautiful bipartisan type of situation,” he said. It really would be.
There's also the possibility that partisanship gets worse.
Trump fired a warning shot Wednesday, saying Republicans would retaliate if Democrats focused their new power on him and his administration by probing into his tax returns and business dealings and investigating his Cabinet's conduct and campaign ties to Russia.
“They can play that game, but we can play it better. Because we have a thing called the United States Senate,” Trump said. “If that happens, then we're going to do the same thing and government would come to a halt and we're going to blame them.”
If the parties choose to work on the nation's needs instead, there is plenty of common ground. Trump and Pelosi both mentioned the need to address prescription drug costs and infrastructure.
“Hopefully, we can all work together next year to continue delivering for the American people including on economic growth, infrastructure, trade, lowering the cost of prescription drugs,” Trump said. “These are some of the things that the Democrats do want to work on, and I really believe we'll be able to do that.”
“Democrats pledge a Congress that works for the people — for the people,” Pelosi said. “Lower the cost of healthcare by lowering the cost of prescription drugs, raise workers wages with strong economic growth by rebuilding the infrastructure of America.”
Those are the type of issues that our government leaders should be working together on. If these leaders don't, voters should reshuffle the deck again in the next election and bring in others who can try.
paul.muschick@mcall.com 610-820-6582 Paul Muschick’s columns are published Monday through Friday at themorningcall.com and Sunday, Wednesday and Friday in The Morning Call. Follow me on Facebook at PaulMuschickColumns, Twitter @mcwatchdog and themorningcall.com/muschick.