Charles P. Pierce: The Question Is Simple: Do You Trust Mitch McConnell?

[babylonsister]

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a15842280/shutdown-deal-trust-mitch-mcconnell/?src=socialflowFBESQ

The Question Is Simple: Do You Trust Mitch McConnell?

The government will reopen. What happens after that is anyone's guess.
By Charles P. Pierce
Jan 22, 2018


Virtually within seconds of the end of Senator Chuck Schumer’s speech announcing that enough members of his Democratic minority will vote for a bill aimed at re-opening the federal government, a concession based entirely on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s “intention” to bring something to a vote that will address the situation of the DACA recipients, McConnell was back to referring to said recipients as “illegal immigrants.” My confidence in McConnell’s good faith was, of course, shaken to its core.

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There are other issues in play. If this bill passes, CHIP will be financed for the next six years, and that’s a very good thing. The military will get its money, and a lot of people will be mollified by that, I guess. (Also, the campaign talking point that the Democrats are stealing money from Our Troops to give it to the various branches of MS-13 is somewhat blunted. Golf clap. They’re going to use it anyway.) And, depending on your relative innate optimism, Schumer and the Democrats didn’t give up much at all but, rather, decided to live to fight in February on funding the government, and to fight on DACA in March. But, for me, McConnell is a rare combination of being ruthless and being truthless, and the House has lost its mind, and the president* has disappeared. And, these days, my innate optimism is not exactly brimming.

What gives me pause is what I saw and heard over the weekend and on Monday. A political party that wants to eliminate entire Cabinet departments defended a president* whose administration* has refused to staff vital positions all over the government by weeping crocodile tears over the plight of furloughed federal employees. And Tailgunner Ted Cruz, cornered in the basement of some Senate office building, insisting that he always has opposed government shutdowns. (I thought Kasie Hunt of MSNBC was going to be orbiting Mars by the time that little episode ended.) The truth is not in these people because, given the nature of their political base, and given the essential political immorality of their donor class, it hasn’t had to be for a very long time.

So, I’m not going to scream, “Sellout!” nor sing “Kumbaya.” I am just going to sum up the state of play in three questions.

Do you trust a promise from Mitch McConnell?

Do you think Paul Ryan can be trusted to control his caucus sufficiently to pass a bill based on a promise from Mitch McConnell?

Do you think the president* can be trusted to sign a bill based on a promise from Mitch McConnell?

Your mileage may certainly vary.

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

Yeah. I'm in the "we'll see" pew, too.