Good Bipartisan Bill Vote: Followed by Very Troubling Trump Base Poll

Cooperation: Senate passes debt limit extension 

(14 GOPers voted to help pass DEM'S bill)

Very good news story here from The Hill with this headline – which we need more like this moving forward:

“14 GOP senators help advance the Schumer-McConnell debt limit deal”

Fourteen Senate Republicans helped advance a deal negotiated by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to set up a one-time exemption to the filibuster on raising the debt ceiling. 

Though leadership had expressed public confidence for days they would be able to deliver at least 10 GOP votes, the deal, negotiated by McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) sparked fresh divisions among Senate Republicans just two months after a bruising fight over a short-term debt hike. 

Senators voted 64-36 to close debate on the bill, which also prevents automatic cuts faced by physicians and other medical providers under Medicare from taking effect. 

Sen. McConnell’s vote was joined by 13 other GOP Senators: Blunt (MO); Barrasso (WY); Burr (NC); Moore-Capito (WV); Collins (ME); Ernst (IA), Cornyn (TX), Murkowski (AK), Thune (SD), Portman (OH), Mitt Romney (UT), Tillis (NC), and Roger Wicker (MS) helped advance the bill.

The bill, which could pass the Senate soon, sets up a fast-track process for bypassing the 60-vote legislative filibuster on a bill to raise the debt ceiling, letting Democrats raise it on their own.

The vote on the debt hike bill is expected to take place by December 15, when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned Congress will hit a cliff for keeping the government solvent. 

Trump knocked McConnell for not weaponizing the debt ceiling against Biden’s broader legislative agenda saying: “The Old Crow is a disaster” (Trump’s nickname for his one-time ally, Mitch McConnell).

McConnell also faced grumbling from members in back-to-back closed-door lunches ahead of the vote this week. For example, several GOP senators voiced their concerns according to GOP senators who attended the meeting.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a close ally of Trump’s, offered frank criticism at the caucus lunch saying: “This idea puts all of us in a box, and I don’t appreciate it. And I won’t forget it. I like you. Sen. McConnell has been a great Republican leader … but this has been a moment where I want to be on the record to say: I don’t like this.” 

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) signaled that he was sympathetic to McConnell’s responsibilities as leader, but questioned a deal where only a minority would be supporting it saying: “No is a bad vote, and yes a bad vote. My biggest point is from a political standpoint … it’s better to have a plan that 40 Republicans will vote for … then having 10 Republicans be a 'yes' vote and marginalizing them.” 

Republican senators launched a last-ditch effort to effectively quash the deal by trying to separate the rules setting up the simple-majority debt ceiling vote. 

A group of conservative senators, led by Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), tried to instead pass a bill to prevent the Medicare cuts. 

Graham also separately tried to get an agreement to strip the debt ceiling instructions out of the House-passed bill.  

Both efforts were blocked by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who warned: “What my colleague … wishes to do is rip up an agreement reached between Democrats and Republicans, specific colleagues, Sen. Schumer and McConnell.” 

Part of the kvetch for Republicans is a concern the strategy effectively puts them in a lose-lose position: They are loath to be viewed as helping Democrats raise the debt ceiling but they also know that voting “no” could open the door for future attack ads characterizing them as voting to cut Medicare.  

The deal delays Medicare cuts, including reductions to provider reimbursements that would have started on January 1, as well as a broader set of Medicare cuts that would have impacted areas like farm subsidies and military retirement funds.  

Sen. Kennedy later added: “Americans may be poorer since President Biden took office but they are not stupid. They look around Washington, D.C., and they see liars and they see frauds in every direction. A deal has been made to give us … a choice between voting for a heart attack or cancer. You either have to give your principles on the debt limit or you have to cut Medicare and hurt our farmers and no one wants to do that.”

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) accused leadership of holding Medicare “hostage to political games.” 

But even as conservatives and Trump, pushed back over the agreement, the vote lacked much of the high-stakes, down-to-the-wire drama that an October fight, where Republicans were locking down votes until the last minute. 

Sen Thune added: “I am confident we’ll have the votes.” 

McConnell appeared to have the 10 votes he needed locked down the night before the final vote, when Tillis, Burr, and Portman each indicated that they would join the group of Republicans to help the agreement get over the procedural hurdle. 

GOP leadership views the deal as a win because (1) it sets up a vote where Democrats raise the debt ceiling on their own, (2) includes a fast-track process, and (3) requires Democrats raise the debt limit to a specific number rather than suspending it to a date.  

GOP leaders argue those three features are similar to what Republicans pushed for as their preferred option: (1) Democrats raising the debt ceiling, (2) using reconciliation, and (3) having a budget process that lets them bypass a filibuster. 

Republicans likewise are also eager to keep the focus on climate and social spending plan, which they view as potent heading into 2022.

McConnell said: “I think this is in the best interest of the country by avoiding default. I think it is also in the best interest of Republicans.”

My 2 Cents: That vote shows a rational American true style of politics to solve problems and stop the raw hatred unlike this message from Trump and is loyal sycophants as simply stated by former GOP Rep. David Jolly (R-FL) on a recent MSNBC show said (and I paraphrase): “The message from Trump and his like-minded followers is that something is being taken from them by the left, the DEMS, and their radical side. Violence is needed to save our nation and our values from them (sic).”

You want a scary poll: From Trump's base here

(Hard to truly comprehend the data)

Ergo: That shows to me an apparent plan for a redux of January 6 that may be in the making. That is Trump’s style and next plan – no election just allow a coup to get him back in office – or so it seems.

So, for any and all Trump followers who follow that line, I recommend they take a break and read this part of 18 USC Chapter 115: TREASON, SEDITION, AND SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES

This section in particular:

§2385. Advocating overthrow of Government

Whoever knowingly or willfully advocates, abets, advises, or teaches the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying the government of the United States or the government of any State, Territory, District or Possession thereof, or the government of any political subdivision therein, by force or violence, or by the assassination of any officer of any such government; or Whoever, with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of any such government, prints, publishes, edits, issues, circulates, sells, distributes, or publicly displays any written or printed matter advocating, advising, or teaching the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying any government in the United States by force or violence, or attempts to do so; or Whoever organizes or helps or attempts to organize any society, group, or assembly of persons who teach, advocate, or encourage the overthrow or destruction of any such government by force or violence; or becomes or is a member of, or affiliates with, any such society, group, or assembly of persons, knowing the purposes thereof — Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction. If two or more persons conspire to commit any offense named in this section, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction. As used in this section, the terms “organizes” and “organize,” with respect to any society, group, or assembly of persons, include the recruiting of new members, the forming of new units, and the regrouping or expansion of existing clubs, classes, and other units of such society, group, or assembly of persons.

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