The House That Never Deserved A Majority

The last time I checked, Republicans still control the House with a simple majority vote until January. Yet, they are out of session until Wednesday and are aimlessly groping in the dark for messaging and policy. Which begs the question: Why haven’t Republicans ever passed a good continuing resolution or omnibus bill out of the House with the immigration fixes and other promises and stared down the Senate? They’ve had at least seven opportunities to do so over the past two years. Why has Trump not called for this?

There’s been a lot of focus throughout these seven or so budget deadlines since the Republicans won the 2016 elections on the fact that they lack 60 votes in the Senate to overcome a filibuster. But Democrats also lack the votes to overcome a filibuster and they don’t have the House or the White House.

Republicans have always had the ability to swiftly pass their campaign promises out of the House attached to a budget bill with a simple majority and dare the Senate to oppose it. This could have built a narrative around the border and sanctuary cities and focused the debate where the Democrats don’t want to take it. Then, Trump could pressure Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., every hour to force Democrats in the Senate to engage in a talking filibuster under the “two-speech rule” all the while having a robust floor debate over the future of our sovereignty, security, MS-13, sanctuary cities, and the drug crisis.

Instead, the House won’t even act. They wait for direction from the Senate and have been doing so for the past two years. This exposes the mendacity of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. Nothing ever stopped him from passing a budget with a simple majority. Like anything else in life, why not take the first step that is easy even if you envision adversity during the second step. You can’t win if you don’t even get on the playing field, but taking that first step in and of itself builds momentum and applies pressure to Democrats.

Read the rest from Daniel Horowitz HERE.