The Irrelevant Democrats
Via Billy
Chuck Schumer is in a spirited mood. "This is going to be one of the
biggest fights of the next three, four months," the Senate minority
leader said recently of the coming debate over tax cuts. "And Democrats
are ready for it."
No doubt they are. But the relevant question is: Does their readiness
even matter? Last month Mitch McConnell said he planned to bring taxes
to the Senate floor under the budget reconciliation procedure. That
would bypass the filibuster. The bill could pass by majority vote. No
Democrats required.
And Republicans are unlikely to experience the defections over taxes
that doomed them on health care. The health bill was a mess, a product
of Republican confusion and infighting. There is no such uncertainty
toward cutting taxes.
This is not to say that a cut is a done deal. Congressional
Republicans may find a way to screw up. Fumbling the ball at the
one-yard line is a specialty of theirs. But the prospect that GOP
incompetence may rob the Trump administration of another legislative
victory only underscores the fundamental point: Chuck Schumer's big
words to the contrary notwithstanding, the Democrats are irrelevant to
the power equation in Donald Trump's Washington.
That equation consists of five variables. None is called (D).
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