Trump pushes McConnell to get rid of the filibuster

The president pushed the Senate to abandon the filibuster in order to shove through his agenda again on Friday morning in a tweet that took a swipe at the Republican leader of the upper chamber, with whom he’s been feuding.

President Donald Trump said the Republican-run Senate should get rid of a motion requiring 60-member consent for debate to proceed.

‘If Senate Republicans don’t get rid of the Filibuster Rule and go to a 51% majority, few bills will be passed. 8 Dems control the Senate!’ he tweeted early this morning.

Within minutes he also claimed, ‘Few, if any, Administrations have done more in just 7 months than the Trump A. Bills passed, regulations killed, border, military, ISIS, SC!’ 

Trump has been battling Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell throughout the August recess over the roadblocks one of the president’s top campaign promises – that he would repeal and replace Obamacare – has faced.

The president pushed the Senate to abandon the filibuster in order to shove through his agenda again on Friday morning in a tweet that indirectly took a swipe at the Republican leader of the upper chamber, with whom he’s been feuding 

President Donald Trump said the Republican-run Senate should get rid of a motion requiring 60-member consent for debate to proceed, saying 'few bills' will pass if they don't

President Donald Trump said the Republican-run Senate should get rid of a motion requiring 60-member consent for debate to proceed, saying ‘few bills’ will pass if they don’t

Then he turned around and boasted that few administrations had accomplished as much as his - including the number of bills passed

Then he turned around and boasted that few administrations had accomplished as much as his – including the number of bills passed

McConnell said earlier this month that Trump has ‘excessive expectations’ and that the political novice may not have understood how the legislative branch works.

The Republican president has accused McConnell and Senate Republicans of ‘wasting time’ with procedural motions he suspects Democrats would throw out if they were in charge again.

Yesterday, Trump said that McConnell ‘failed’ just hours after the White House tried to paper over the fight between the two men.

‘The only problem I have with Mitch McConnell is that, after hearing Repeal & Replace for 7 years, he failed! Trump said. ‘That should NEVER have happened!’  

The tweet’s two exclamation points and use of all caps left little doubt about the president’s feelings on the subject. Senate Republicans’ inability to move on one of his top campaign and legislative goals is a sore spot the president has brought up repeatedly.

Earlier on Thursday, Trump went after McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan by name, saying they refused his idea of tying unpopular debt ceiling legislation to a Veterans bill – amid a looming deadline for the nation’s borrowing limit. ‘They didn’t do it,’ Trump wrote of his idea.

‘I requested that Mitch M & Paul R tie the Debt Ceiling legislation into the popular V.A. Bill (which just passed) for easy approval. They… didn’t do it so now we have a big deal with Dems holding them up (as usual) on Debt Ceiling approval. Could have been so easy-now a mess!’ Trump wrote in two successive tweets.

Congressional leaders frequently use the tactic of attaching must-pass legislation to a popular vehicle, but there has been no indication that the veterans bill is anywhere near strong enough to move Republicans to vote for a debt ceiling increase they despise.   

Debt ceiling votes have been anything but easy in recent years. The party out of power frequently forces the majority to provide votes for the unpopular measure. Republicans ran on smaller government and lower spending, making a vote for massive new borrowing authority a difficult political choice. 

Trump had taken a shot at the Senate – and by association McConnell – Wednesday morning, after a report that the two men hadn’t spoken in weeks, in relation to the filibuster.  

‘If Republican Senate doesn’t get rid of the Filibuster Rule & go to a simple majority, which the Dems would do, they are just wasting time!’ Trump tweeted.

McConnell, a creature of the Senate, a body Trump is still trying to grapple with, smacked down the idea when Trump put it out in May.  

‘That will not happen,’ McConnell said. ‘There is an overwhelming majority on a bipartisan basis not interested in changing the way the Senate operates on the legislative calendar,’ the Kentucky legislator told reporters. 

McConnell has also found himself having to side with his fellow senators against Trump, who has turned on any GOP members that he feels have betrayed him

McConnell has also found himself having to side with his fellow senators against Trump, who has turned on any GOP members that he feels have betrayed him

Trump’s filibuster tweet on Wednesday came hours after the president floated the idea of shutting down his own government as a way to force construction of a border wall.

‘If we have to close down our government, we’re building that wall’ Trump said – raising the prospect of a messy government shutdown that GOP senators hope to avoid.  

McConnell all but confirmed reports of a nasty feud with Trump on Wednesday when he released a statement about their ‘regular contact’ and ‘shared goals.’

The statement, issued by the powerful leader’s Senate office, made no effort to deny reports of angry phone calls, profanity – or a claim that he himself privately questioned whether Trump can effectively lead Republicans in 2018.

Instead, it ran through a list of mostly modest legislative goals to keep the government humming – just hours after Trump at a boisterous Phoenix rally threatened to shut down the government if necessary to get funds to construct a wall on the southern border.

‘The President and I, and our teams, have been and continue to be in regular contact about our shared goals,’ McConnell said in the statement.

 The White House issued a separate statement with different priorities – including a border wall, which McConnell didn’t mention. 

Trump's filibusters come on the heels of his floating a shut down of his own government as a way to force construction of a border wall

Trump’s filibusters come on the heels of his floating a shut down of his own government as a way to force construction of a border wall

‘President Donald J. Trump and Senator Mitch McConnell remain united on many shared priorities, including middle class tax relief, strengthening the military, constructing a southern border wall, and other important issues.’

That statement, which referenced ‘previously scheduled meetings’ between the two men, did not reference the president’s continued beef with McConnell over the failure to pass Obamacare repeal.  

Trump began to focus his energies Thursday on avoiding a calamitous government shutdown as he huddled with his budget director amid tense relations with Congress.  

His comments drew a rebuke Wednesday from Ryan.

‘So I don’t think anyone is interested in having a shutdown,’ Ryan said at a tax forum. ‘I don’t think it’s in our interest to do so,’ he added.

House Speaker Paul Ryan speaks during his visit to Intel in Hillsboro, Ore., on Wednesday. 'So I don’t think anyone is interested in having a shutdown,' Ryan said

House Speaker Paul Ryan speaks during his visit to Intel in Hillsboro, Ore., on Wednesday. ‘So I don’t think anyone is interested in having a shutdown,’ Ryan said

Matters are further complicated by Trump’s arguments with McConnell.

The White House said Wednesday that pre-scheduled meetings between then would occur, but didn’t give a time or date.

The government reaches its statutory debt limit on Sept. 29th, and runs out of money at the end of September.

‘We have a lot of work ahead of us, and we are committed to advancing our shared agenda together, and anyone who suggests otherwise is clearly not part of the conversation,’ said McConnell in his own statement, which unlike the one from the White House did not mention a border wall as a priority. 

Investment firm Goldman Sachs in guidance to investors handicaps the chance of a shutdown at 50-50, Axios reported. 

President Donald Trump greets Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., left, as House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., right, takes his seat during a meeting with House and Senate Leadership in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Tuesday, June 06, 2017

President Donald Trump greets Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., left, as House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., right, takes his seat during a meeting with House and Senate Leadership in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Tuesday, June 06, 2017

A top GOP source put the chances even higher – 75 per cent. ‘The peculiar part is that almost everyone I talk to on the Hill agrees that it is more likely than not,’ the source told the outlet.

Centrist Republicans continue to chafe at the president’s tactics. ‘It’s entirely counterproductive for the president to be picking fights with Republican senators who he will need for important agenda items that they both agree on, Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) told the Washington Post.

‘Does he think that Democratic senators will be more cooperative than [Sens.]John McCain and Jeff Flake and Susan Collins? It doesn’t seem to make any sense,’ he said.

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