WASHINGTON — Republicans were left fuming at a deal struck Wednesday
between President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders that combines
disaster aid for Hurricane Harvey victims with measures to keep the
government open and extend the debt ceiling for three more months.
The agreement occurred during a late-morning
Oval Office meeting between Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck
Schumer and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. During the meeting,
Trump sided with the Democrats, agreeing to their demands for a
short-term extension of government funding and the debt limit and
rejecting Republicans’ efforts to seek a longer-term debt ceiling hike.
It was a blow to GOP plans to avoid a series
of politically treacherous votes for their members, or at least provide
cover for them by attaching it to the disaster relief bill.
By agreeing to the three-month extensions, the
GOP-controlled Congress would be forced to revisit both the debt
ceiling and government spending extensions in December. And it increases
the pressure on Republicans to pass yet more extensions to both, or
face the prospect of the U.S. defaulting on its bills or a government
shutdown just weeks before Christmas.
Democrats praised the deal, which was reached
just before the House overwhelmingly passed $7.85 billion in disaster
relief with nothing else attached.
“It was a really good moment of some bipartisanship and getting things done,” Schumer told reporters.
But it leaves rank-and-file Republicans
befuddled and with few good choices. Opposition to increasing the
nation's debt ceiling has become a matter of principle for many
conservatives who say that this deal is worse than any they could have
imagined because it forces them to vote on it twice in three months.
“The Pelosi-Schumer-Trump deal is bad,” said Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., in a short, terse statement.
McConnell told reporters it was the president’s decision and that GOP leadership will move forward with it.
“The President can speak for himself, but his
feeling was that we needed to come together to not create a picture of
divisiveness at a time of genuine national crisis and that was the
rationale,” McConnell told reporters.
Still, it was a stunning turn of events.
Wednesday morning began with Pelosi and
Schumer issuing their demand that the debt limit be increased for just
three months as part of the hurricane relief bill. Ryan called the idea
“ridiculous and disgraceful,” adding that Democrats “want to play
politics with the debt ceiling.”
An hour later, the four leaders met with
Trump. Republicans entered the meeting proposing an 18 month increase to
the debt limit, which would put the issue aside until after the midterm
elections.
Trump rejected that and so Republicans floated six months.
But Pelosi and Schumer stuck to their three month demand.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who was also
present, argued in favor of a longer-term debt limit extension, but the
president cut him off and sided with the Democrats, multiple sources
with knowledge of the meeting said.
In an unexpected turn of events, Ivanka Trump,
the president's daughter and adviser, came into the room to say hello
toward the end of the meeting, which derailed the conversation and left
the Republicans visibly annoyed, a Democratic aide briefed on the
meeting said.
AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Ryan, called
that characterization of Republican reaction "false."
And a White House
aide said that Trump invited his daughter in to talk about her child-tax
credit proposal, that she stayed on-topic and that it was “not an
issue.”
Back on Capitol Hill, there was a mixture of resignation and outrage.
At the weekly lunch for Senate Republicans,
McConnell, joined by White House budget director Mick Mulvaney and Vice
President Mike Pence, laid out the deal reached with Democratic leaders.
When asked if they were surprised at the deal that was made, some senators appeared unfazed.
“Nothing shocks me around here,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.
“Am I surprised? Not really,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.
Still, senators were left unsure of how they’d
vote on the deal, even though it includes nearly $8 billion in
immediate relief for Harvey victims.
“We are literally funding this government on
90 day notes. That is not the way to fund the largest, most relevant
entity in the world,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska.
He said that he’s likely to vote for it
because of the desperate need of people in Texas, adding, “patience is
wearing thin on short-term funding of this government.”
Some Republicans, however, fumed. During a
lunch of the conservative Republican Study Committee, members
unanimously voiced their opposition to the deal, an aide said.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., said Republican leaders didn’t go into the talks with a good enough proposal.
“You've got to give the president conservative
options," Meadows said. "There was not a conservative option on the
table. It was either a clean debt ceiling or this deal. And when we look
at that you can’t criticize somebody when there’s not a conservative
proposal that’s put forth."
Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., chairman of the
conservative Republican Study Committee, said Mnuchin and Republican
leaders have been pushing for a way to find the easiest path to pass a
debt ceiling with no reforms attached.
“They’ve been trolling along looking for
something to attach it to,” Walker said of Republican leaders. “To use
the pain and suffering of the people of Texas to me is offensive."
Trump praised the deal aboard Air Force One
on his way to North Dakota for a speech on tax reform. But he said he
had a very good meeting with Pelosi and Schumer, and didn’t even mention
the leaders of his party — McConnell and Ryan.
He also said that the debt ceiling must always
be lifted without question, a position not held by most Republicans,
who in recent years have turned it into a lever to achieve their policy
goals of budget cuts.
“We had a very good meeting with Nancy Pelosi
and Chuck Schumer," Trump said. "We agreed to a three-month extension on
debt ceiling, which they consider to be sacred — very important —
always we’ll agree on debt ceiling automatically because of the
importance of it."
The deal, however, just pushes the threat of a government shutdown to December.
“Merry Christmas,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.
Contributors
Alex Moe, Garrett Haake, Frank Thorp V and Hallie Jackson