Unsanitized: Another Round of Unused Leverage for House Democrats

The government funding bill presents an opportunity. This is The COVID-19 Daily Report for September 22, 2020.

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First Response

One thing that’s angered me throughout the Congressional response to the pandemic has been how Democrats have consistently given up leverage to the opposition. Republicans wanted a corporate bailout, and Democrats complied, without getting permanent support through the duration of the national emergency. Republicans wanted more money for small business, and Democrats added none of their priorities in the exchange.

Now Mitch McConnell has identified something else that his caucus wants. And Nancy Pelosi is ready to squander that as well.

At issue is the government funding bill that must pass by October 1 to avoid a shutdown. Pelosi has long said that this bill would be a “clean” continuing resolution, including no extraneous riders or policies. Why is that a virtue right now, when more than 20 million people are out of work and getting no federal supplement to their meager benefits, when there’s no additional funding for nutrition assistance or small business survival or school reopening or election safety and security? I don’t know, it’s just Washington-speak. But whatever, bring on the clean CR.

And House Democrats did yesterday, funding the government through December 11. But in the Democrats’ conception, a “clean” bill means no additional funding for a New Deal-era program that has been bailing out farmers through the trade war and the pandemic. So $30 billion sought by the White House as an election-year bribe was left out. This got Mitch McConnell upset.

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“House Democrats’ rough draft of a government funding bill shamefully leaves out key relief and support that American farmers need,” McConnell tweeted, apparently freelancing as the White House expressed little interest in a fight, saying that a clean bill was their main concern. Whether it’s because of his re-election or more likely the re-election of some of his colleagues in farm states like Iowa and North Carolina and Georgia and South Carolina, McConnell unexpectedly rejected the CR.

Well, this is a wrinkle. McConnell has now reopened the question of whether the bill should be “clean” or not. There’s a $30 billion slush fund (the bulk of which has gone to the richest farmers and agribusinesses) that he wants in there. That means Democrats can make a trade. What can they get in exchange?

If you listen to Pelosi, nothing. She told Chris Hayes last night that the CR is “a parallel track,” and “we wouldn't even think of threatening to shut down government.” But McConnell is the one doing the threatening. Now there’s a negotiation. So what concession be wrung out of that negotiation?

Well, there’s always an equivalent amount of money for a needy group. If a $30 billion farm bailout is so desired, $30 billion for, say, nutrition assistance could be forwarded, to benefit those on the endless lines at food banks across America. This is essentially what the farm bill is, an exchange of nutrition assistance for farm supports. Or the $30 billion could go as a cash transfer to the unemployed.

The other option would go a long way to neutralizing the main near-term threat to the now-certain selection of a conservative Justice to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The lawsuit that will be heard in the Court on November 10 absurdly suggests that, because the individual mandate penalty for the Affordable Care Act has been reduced to $0, it’s no longer a tax, which was the reason that John Roberts upheld the constitutionality of the mandate in NFIB v. Sebelius. And if the mandate isn’t constitutional, then the whole law has to be thrown out. It’s a leap of logic but there we are.

All you have to do, as Jon Walker wrote for us in December and as we re-ran today, is repeal the mandate. If it’s severed from the law, then the law can continue unimpeded. It’s a one-line bill that could be put in, as the price for the farm bailout. If McConnell opposes it, then he’s literally opposing the repeal of the individual mandate because he wants to get rid of pre-existing condition protections too. 

The point here is that there’s leverage, once again, which Pelosi is refusing to use, based on some imagined honor code where the continuing resolution to fund the government is sacrosanct, even if Republicans are demanding to exploit it. It’s hard to fend off the cynical take that Pelosi and the Democrats want the healthcare of 20 million people to be threatened, or that they want millions of unemployed workers struggling to survive, if they won’t use every tool at their disposal to get them relief.

Tell the concert venue staffer who hasn’t seen a paycheck in six months, and is now cutting back on spending because federal cash transfers have run out, that government funding happens on a “parallel track.” Tell the person with leukemia who won’t be able to get insurance if the ACA falls. Tell the family on the bread line, tell the teacher digging money out of her own pocket for facemasks and shields and risking her life by going to work, tell them all that “parallel tracks” just prevent Democrats from using the power granted to them by their place in Congress.

It’s ridiculous and enervating to see this failure to wield power over and over and over again. Mitch McConnell has opened a debate over what should be attached to the CR. In eight days that bill has to pass. How can you look that gift horse in the mouth and do nothing?

One final point: other members of Congress need to realize their power on this too. They can file an amendment to the CR with any number of ideas, including the one-line bill to save the Affordable Care Act from the current lawsuit threat. Sure, Pelosi can prevent a vote on it at the Rules Committee, but the riders could be an organizing tool that would force her to defy her caucus in the process. It’s called politics, and it would be good if Democratic representatives took the time to practice it.

Days Without a Bailout Oversight Chair

180. Wow, six months.

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