Really, this ought to be a no-drama, no-brainer. On Friday Congress passed a one-week extension so that it could write a clean extension of the government’s spending authorization to take Washington through the end of the fiscal year in September.
The agreement is to put off all the potentially deal-killing big issues until Congress settles down to the task of writing a budget for fiscal 2018 in August and September.
Unless, of course, some of these deal-killing big issues get revived by their partisans in and out of Congress (i.e. in the White House.)
The White House and the ultra-conservative members of the Republican Freedom Caucus continue to push for a vote on repealing Obamacare.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was a late convert to a proposal to make the Federal guarantee of health care benefits for 20,000 retired miners permanent. He probably can’t get a spending extension through the Senate without the vote of coal-state Senators. Will conservatives in the House bolt on the issue?
Has President Donald Trump really pulled back on efforts to get money to start the Wall in the spending extension? How about money for more border agents? How about increases in military spending? Trump will sign a bill without those items, won’t he?
In all likelihood Congress will get a bare-bones compromise through and the President will sign it. But I’d expect the week to have a anxious moment or two.
The extension runs through Friday, May 5.
