That is the conclusion of RedState Editor-in-Chief Erik Erickson and we have to agree. A provision to change Dodd-Frank financial regulatory provisions was important enough to establishment Republicans to go to the mat to protect. It is a provision that certainly could have been pushed to the waiting room like so much else supposedly was. As Erickson says:
The provision in question would benefit Citibank. It’s not a bad provision. I favor it. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)6% does not. But it is quite telling that House GOP Leaders preferred a shutdown to stripping that provision out. They could not, however, be bothered when it came to stopping amnesty.
That’s really all you need to know.
Conservatives were not really helped. Pro-life Christians proved yet again what a cheap date they are. But in the end we all got to see the Republican leadership for who they are. And that has long-term benefits for conservatives in the ongoing fight against the establishment.
A key vote in this was the accompanying rule necessary to move the CRomnibus forward. On that score there were some conservative heroes including Iowa’s Steve King. The RedState report has a full list. The pressure supplied by conservatives as push back to Boehner and establishment interests was useful (as explained in the Heritage article excerpted below) and will have consequences. Unfortunately the term Pyrrhic comes to mind as appropriate for Boehner’s victory, well that is if he has any concerns about the Republican Party and his standing.
Those House members who claimed at election time, primary and general, their opposition to amnesty and Obama’s unconstitutional EO.s, to prioritize border control, to oppose Obamacare, and support all manner of Republican principles now abandoned to CRomnibus, can, to the hood-winkable, claim, “well we just had to get past Harry Reid for a few months.” Come January 6th, when Harry Reid is gone as Senate Majority leader, there is no excuse not to pass strategic conservative reforms on the scale and with the assertiveness that Democrats achieved their Obamanations by at least denying implementation funding.
The focus will shift to Mitch McConnell and the Senate and that too will be useful and revealing. But House votes in the first few months of the year will absolutely tell the tale for them. There is no reserve of trust or faith in their political judgement after what Republican leadership did on the heals and in the face of the mandate they received in the election just a month ago. The key issues they kicked not down the road, but into the ditch, may not be recoverable.
Having obliterated confidence, they have to earn it back. Token votes will no longer do. Most conservatives I talk to and read, doubt it will happen. But all will be evident in coming months whether the Republican politicians with their sinecures (so they think) will have any desire to reclaim what they have thrown away. The party establishment may not realize it yet (we think they do) but the Republican Party took a huge hit with the subservience of the House politicians to K street interests and priorities.
The opportunity for cohesiveness going into 2016 and after the primaries is unrecoverable other than as a result of the most definitive assertiveness projected with votes in the first months of the new congress. At this point the attitude of many conservatives has probably moved beyond “primary the bastards” to “why bother”. And that is not good if Republican establishment loyalists care about being the majority party for long.
We will see more and more talk and activity toward third-party formulations. Political activity will shift to PACs. The hang-ups to fundraising calls from the RNC etc., will be the clicks heard ’round the country. Primary maneuverings will be the most the party establishment can hope for to maintain Party majority status (again, if they actually care about that). But heartburn is in store for the Party thanks to Boehner et al.
More reading on what transpired last night on the CRomnibus is available in this fine report (excerpted) courtesy of the Heritage Foundation’s Melissa Quinn writing for their publication Daily Signal
Conservatives and liberals weren’t happy, although for different reasons.
“The Washington establishment is desperately hoping voters and lawmakers will forget about today’s ugliness, but the deception and shenanigans are different this time,” said Dan Holler, communications director for Heritage Action for America, the advocacy arm of The Heritage Foundation. Holler added:
This legislation funds President Obama’s unilateral, unlawful actions, which include granting quasi-legal status, work permits and Social Security numbers to those who are in the country illegally.
Conservatives fought for the CRomnibus to fund the full government only until next month, thus allowing the new Congress to have a say in the appropriations process. They also contended the legislation doesn’t address the president’s executive actions to give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants.
Obama last month announced he would shield 5 million or more illegal immigrants from deportation and allow them to apply for work permits. House Republicans responded by proposing to fund the Department of Homeland Security only until Feb. 27.
The CRomnibus includes billions to pay for services for unaccompanied minors from Central America who crossed the border into the United States.
The House moved toward final passage even as it remained in recess early in the evening.
In the afternoon, the CRomnibus cleared a major procedural hurdle by the slimmest of margins.
Lawmakers gathered on the House floor to cast a vote to advance the spending bill. But as “nays” votes surpassed “yays,” Boehner and Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., chief deputy whip, began approaching colleagues to convince them to change their votes to the affirmative.
The move proved successful as Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., and Rep. Kerry Bentivolio, R-Mich., cast the deciding votes in the 214-212 result by switching from “nay” to “yay.”
National Review reported that Stutzman changed his vote because House leadership promised him the CRomnibus would be pulled and replaced with a short-term continuing resolution.
In the end, 16 of 234 Republicans voted not to advance the 1,603-page spending bill.
Obama aides then sought to help Boehner secure enough votes from their respective parties to pass the legislation.
Following the close procedural vote in the afternoon, the White House issued a statement announcing Obama’s support for the CRomnibus and urging the House to pass the bill . . .
Those last few paragraphs probably say all that needs to be said about CRomnibus. The bill now goes to the Senate where 51 votes are need for passage.
R Mall
