House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) speaks about healthcare at his final weekly press conference before The House of Representatives is scheduled to begin its summer recess on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 27, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Trouble could be brewing as conservative House Republicans are already warning Speaker Paul Ryan not to lump Harvey disaster relief in with a debt ceiling increase.
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said attaching Harvey aid to a debt-ceiling increase would be a “terrible idea” that would be “conflating two very different issues.”
“The Harvey relief would pass on its own, and to use that as a vehicle to get people to vote for a debt ceiling is not appropriate,” he said in an interview. “That sends all the wrong message: ‘Let’s go ahead and increase the debt ceiling, and by the way, while we’re doing it let’s go ahead and spend another $15, $20 billion dollars? That’s not to undercut the importance of Harvey relief. We’re going to fund Harvey relief without a doubt, but I think it just sends the wrong message when you start attaching it to the debt ceiling.”
The question is not if a Harvey disaster relief bill gets passed, but how, and the hows of governing are where Trump and the Republicans have repeatedly tripped themselves up. It is logical that Paul Ryan could decide that the fastest way to clear the decks of two important tasks would be to bundle a short term debt ceiling increase with the Harvey bill. Democrats will definitely support it, and the Senate might prefer it, but the conservative House Republicans could upend everything if they don’t like the process.
Both Senate Majority Leader McConnell and Ryan want to move on to cutting taxes for the wealthy and corporations, but if the House gets bogged down in another procedural food fight the whole plan could fall apart, and the people of Texas could be left waiting for disaster relief funds.
Republicans continue to reveal that they are totally dysfunctional and unfit to govern.
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