One of them is the power of the purse. Article I of the Constitution bestows that power on Congress, and, more specifically, the House of Representatives. “All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives…” The President, or the Senate, or the Supreme Court, does not have this power. Our mother country, Great Britain, went through a century of war, regicide, and revolution in order to establish this principle. The precursor to our Revolution was Britain’s Glorious Revolution of 1688. The Framers understood all this as well as anyone. Every word, every phrase, in the Constitution is there for a reason.
Senator Mitch McConnell, after the midterms of 2014 made him the Majority Leader, immediately announced that, on behalf of Congress, he would surrender the power of the purse to President Obama. This was necessary, in his view, in order to avoid the political damage Republicans would suffer in the event of a government shutdown. In essence, he emasculated himself, and the result has been two years of a neutered Congress. When McConnell unmanned himself, and the Congress, House Speaker Boehner went along meekly.
All signs point to a continuing Republican House Majority. The NBC News poll shows Clinton up by eleven, but the generic Congressional ballot only gives the D’s a two point margin, well within the range of a Republican majority. This dovetails with the fact that Republican candidates for the Senate are far outperforming Trump. The chances are improving that we’ll hold the Senate. People understand that the Clinton criminal family will be moving back into the White House, and they want their power diminished.
Trump should do well enough in tomorrow’s debate to avoid losing in a landslide, or so it appears. The prospect of a Clinton Presidency has a lot of people scared, and they’re holding their noses and voting for the Sociopath. This debate is Trump’s to lose, and I don’t expect him to. A lot of sociopaths have political skills, and he’s one of them. And you don’t need a great deal of skill to demonstrate that the idea of electing this woman President is absurd. Which it is, except for who she’s running against.
Paul Ryan said recently that he wants to use a Continuing Resolution, or a budget Reconciliation bill, in order to repeal Obamacare, making it not subject to filibuster. But what if Clinton is President, and vetoes it? Will he cave? Or will he fight?
I think he might fight. If the Republicans have maintained a majority in both House and Senate, they’ll have just as much of a mandate as Clinton. More, really. Clinton will only have won because of Trump, and the Congressional Republicans will have won in spite of him. Who has the mandate to govern? Who has the Constitutional obligation to govern? Who has the will to fight?
If he fights, and wins, he’ll set up a midterm wave election for the Republicans. And 2020 will be setting up quite nicely.
To the extent that Clinton gets a political honeymoon, it’ll be over by the end of summer, say late August. So when we all get together for the Great American Eclipse of August 21st we can all sing, “The Witch is dead.”
Like millions of normal Americans, I’ll miss Wednesday’s debate. I’m an Oakland A’s fan, and we always trade away our good players, and I get to root for them in the playoffs. One of our favorites is Coco Crisp, and he’s now an Indian. I’ll be watching baseball. Go Tribe.
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