{"id":17604,"date":"2018-09-20T12:17:35","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T17:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=17604"},"modified":"2018-09-20T12:17:35","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T17:17:35","slug":"pushing-him-to-the-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2018\/09\/20\/pushing-him-to-the-edge\/","title":{"rendered":"Pushing Him To The Edge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Congress is not entirely irresponsible. <em><strong>WaPo<\/strong><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/economy\/senate-passes-massive-defense-and-health-spending-bill-punts-border-wall-fight-to-december\/2018\/09\/18\/ed6f8436-bb56-11e8-9812-a389be6690af_story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">notes<\/a> they&#8217;re trying to handle the impending government funding shortfall with a minimum of fuss:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p data-elm-loc=\"1\">The Senate on Tuesday passed a short-term spending bill that would keep the government running through Dec.\u00a07, aiming to avert a government shutdown and put off a fight over funding for President Trump\u2019s border wall until after the midterm elections.<\/p>\n<p data-elm-loc=\"2\">The short-term bill came attached to a massive budget package containing full-year 2019 funding for the Pentagon as well as for the Labor, Education and Health and Human Services departments. GOP leaders designed the package to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/economy\/shelby-trump-prepare-for-a-trillion-dollar-tug-of-war-over-the-future-of-the-gop\/2018\/09\/04\/ab9cbccc-aba7-11e8-a8d7-0f63ab8b1370_story.html\">combine key Republican and Democratic priorities<\/a> in an attempt to garner overwhelming bipartisan support. The package also aims to satisfy Trump\u2019s desire for more military spending.<\/p>\n<p data-elm-loc=\"3\">The 93-to-7 vote came less than two weeks ahead of a Sept.\u00a030 deadline when government funding <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/2018\/09\/13\/house-gop-planning-avert-government-shutdown\/\">will expire unless Congress and Trump intervene<\/a>. &#8230;<\/p>\n<p data-elm-loc=\"3\">The House is expected to take up the bill next week, but it remains uncertain whether Trump would sign the measure.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p data-elm-loc=\"3\">The fact that the Republicans voted for it, unless that was a strategic &#8220;make us look good&#8221; vote, suggests that, if push comes to shove, the Senate Republicans will vote to override a veto.<\/p>\n<p data-elm-loc=\"3\">So let&#8217;s suppose the House votes in a similar fashion for this bill. How will President Trump react? He&#8217;s already stuck his neck out wth this <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/1042740913968164864\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tweet<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p data-elm-loc=\"3\">[tweet https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/1042740913968164864]<\/p>\n<p data-elm-loc=\"3\">He wants his Wall, and he wants it now. He has two audiences, his base, and the independents who still waffle over him.<\/p>\n<p data-elm-loc=\"3\">If he signs the bill, his base will potentially see him as weak and that may put a crack in that all-important base. His base is important not only because of the political power it gives him, but also the <em>emotional validation<\/em> they give him. However, the all-important independents will see this as a positive and pragmatic move on the President&#8217;s part.<\/p>\n<p data-elm-loc=\"3\">If he vetoes the bill, he looks strong to his base &#8211; unless Congress overrides his veto. The independents, whose attitudes towards the wall are all over the place, will, to a large degree, dislike him even more.<\/p>\n<p data-elm-loc=\"3\">But there&#8217;s one more factor to consider: the President is a former Reality TV star. Drama plays into his view of life and his ego. Shutting down the government may strike him as being a dramatic, powerful move.<\/p>\n<p data-elm-loc=\"3\">My conservative guess is that he&#8217;ll sign the bill, all the while trying to play it up as a powerful move by himself. Done properly, his base will suck the pablum down and believe it.<\/p>\n<p data-elm-loc=\"3\">My adventurous guess is that his love of drama will entice him into the veto, and he&#8217;ll b overridden by a Republican Party terrified of getting even more mud on their brand. If they don&#8217;t, the Democrats would have one more shell to put in their artillery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Congress is not entirely irresponsible. WaPo notes they&#8217;re trying to handle the impending government funding shortfall with a minimum of fuss: The Senate on Tuesday passed a short-term spending bill that would keep the government running through Dec.\u00a07, aiming to avert a government shutdown and put off a fight over \u2026 <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2018\/09\/20\/pushing-him-to-the-edge\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17604"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17606,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17604\/revisions\/17606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}