The Kentucky senator and Senate minority leader, who embraced the moniker Darth Vader for his purported ability to thwart Democrats' ambitions, looked foolish last week when his Democratic counterpart, Chuck Schumer, announced a deal with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., on a tax-and-spending binge mere hours after McConnell and 16 other Republicans voted on final passage of a pork-laden spending bill
Cave #1: Debt Limit
- Once House and Senate Democrats agreed to a budget resolution in August that did not include an explicit provision to raise the debt limit via budget reconciliation, Democrats forfeited all their leverage over the debt ceiling.
- They needed Republican cooperation to raise it, and only needed 10 Republicans to vote for the bill on the Senate floor to overcome a filibuster
- McConnell used his majority to cave, giving Democrats the votes needed to pass a short-term increase, and then concocting a new process for Democrats to increase it
Cave #2: Chips Bill
- In late June, McConnell sent out a very clear warning that any attempt to pass "a partisan reconciliation bill" would lead to the death of a bipartisan bill promoting semiconductor chip production.
- When Democrats publicly shifted towards a health-care-only reconciliation, McConnell gave the green light for passage of the chips legislation.
Infrastructure and Reconciliation
- Overhanging the entire debate about Democrats' "partisan reconciliation bill" lies the argument that McConnell and other Senate Republicans made last summer: That agreeing to a $1 trillion bipartisan spending binge on "infrastructure" would prevent Democrats from ever congealing around a tax-and-spending package via budget reconciliation.
- That premise always seemed dubious at best, since Democrats' differences surrounding the legislation came more in degree than in kind.
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