"This open GOP warfare not only will continue but likely will get worse on everything left to be done on spending and revenues this year ..."

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COMMENTS:
*  Do you realize that this “majority” represents less than 37% of Americans, and they are all elderly white people? So many voters are disgusted by the antics of Congress that they only come out to vote in national elections, and when they do, they inevitably elect a Democrat for President.
*  I think now that it was a smart idea to let the Republicans win both the senate and the house. They show they have no business making decisions that affect policy here in the U.S. They try to all things to all people and it doesn’t work. They are unable to come together as a party due to many being tea party politicans trying to advance their agenda. There used to be in this country a Republican party that was well respected by all voters. Now it’s a club for the far extreme right and nuts. The grand old party has been high jacked by people that do not have the well being of the U.S. in their thoughts. Only their personal agenda…
*  Wow, the GOP has imploded faster than I would have expected. Hmm, maybe the problem isn’t the other guy; maybe it’s that Republicans can’t govern. Certainly they can’t govern while they have to pander to the reactionary base that wants them to act tough and stand up to the evil howwible tywant Obama.  Morons, try developing some constructive policies and entertaining some solutions to this country’s problems. If you start there, maybe the rest will work itself out.
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GOP Congress On The Verge Of A Meltdown
By Stan Collender, February 17, 2015

The coming political breakdown between the immoveable Republican House and the irresistible GOP Senate on funding for the Department of Homeland Security was both entirely predictable and predicted.

In fact, two weeks after the election this past November I predicted it in this post. I said, “…the sides have already been drawn and the battle – no, the war – among congressional Republicans on the federal budget is well underway.”

The Republican vs. Republican budget war is now wide open for all to see. The House’s intransigence on this particular issue — it insists that the DHS appropriation include language that somehow reverses President Obama’s executive orders on immigration -– is being matched by the Senate’s unwillingness to take the steps needed either to match what the House wants or develop its own alternative.

And, as I also predicted, the unwillingness of Senate Democrats to provide any votes for their GOP colleagues even on issues where there is some agreement has backed Republicans so far into a political corner that it’s not at all clear how they will fight their way out.

This is not an aberration over the very hot button immigration issue: No matter how this showdown ends, it’s virtually certain to be repeated over and over and over again this year on everything budget-related.

The current budget stalemate and those to come were inevitable the day after Election Day. Even though the House and Senate both have Republican majorities and are controlled by the same political party, the GOP representatives and senators have very different constituencies and, therefore, vastly dissimilar political needs.

Because the 2012 redistricting created more reliably one-party congressional districts, House Republicans are more concerned about intra-GOP fights in primaries than general elections and the voters in those races tend to be extremely anti-Democrat, anti-Obama and conservative. They are also far more willing to support militant tactics like shutdowns.

By comparison, reelection for many Senate Republicans depends on them appealing to a much broader and more moderate (even if it’s only just relative) statewide base that is not as comfortable with confrontational politics. Add to that the fact that 24 of the 34 senators up for reelection in 2016 will be Republicans and that many of them are from states that Obama won and you start to understand the substantially different political needs between the two GOP-controlled houses of Congress.

That makes it anything but surprising that on many or even most issues what the GOP House demands won’t be acceptable to the Republican Senate and what the Republican Senate needs will be completely intolerable to the GOP House.

The Republican vs. Republican warfare truly broke out into the open last week with everyone from Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) saying it was time for the Senate to grow a pair and act on the DHS appropriation the way the House wants.

In a break from traditional congressional gentility, Boehner said it was time for the Senate Democrats “to get off their ass,” although it was clear that he was referring at least as much to the Republicans. (Remember: Boehner’s caucus has a much more combative constituency.)

And in a departure from the typical public display of GOP party unity, Labrador, who is far more militant than Boehner, said the Senate might as well be under Democratic control given the Republican majority’s inability or unwillingness to do what the House GOP wanted.

This open GOP warfare not only will continue but likely will get worse on everything left to be done on spending and revenues this year which, with the exception of the remaining DHS appropriation, is the entire congressional budget process.

If House Republicans prevail in the DHS bill, Senate Republicans are going to need concessions on the bigger budget fights to come that the House won’t be willing to provide. If the Senate wins on DHS, House Republicans will increase their demands and intransigence even further on the fiscal 2016 budget resolution that is supposed to be adopted by April 15. That may well kill any chance of its being adopted and, therefore, of reconciliation being available for changes in taxes, spending or Obamacare.

In the meantime, overall GOP anger will likely grow over what now seems to be an inevitable series of Obama vetoes. As I said in November, that will increase the demands from the House for more extreme tactics like government shutdowns and a refusal to deal with the debt ceiling increase that will be needed later this year. That will put pressure on the Republican senators up for reelection to go along or face a primary challenge from the same anti-Democrat, anti-Obama, conservative and militant wing of the party that is so evident in the House.

And that will make the political meltdown and open warfare between the Republican House and the GOP Senate complete.
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