The Obama-McConnell Dance Begins The new Senate leader says he’ll seek common ground, but it won’t be easy, given Obama’s ‘view of America.’ By Fred Barnes Jan. 4, 2015 5:34 p.m. ET President Obama invited Mitch McConnell , soon to become Senate majority leader, to the White House on Dec. 3. At Mr. McConnell’s insistence, they met one-on-one. They discussed trade, tax reform and infrastructure, the three issues on which they believe compromises are possible in 2015. This sounds promising. In reality, it doesn’t bode well for a season of bipartisanship and an end to “dysfunction” in Washington. Even on the three negotiable issues, reaching agreement will be difficult. And beyond them, “it’s hard to find anything we agree on,” Mr. McConnell told me in an interview. Mr. Obama has a “different view of America” than Republicans do, he said. When the new Congress convenes on Tuesday, Mr. Obama will find himself in an unfamiliar role. Republicans will control the Senate and House. And for the first time in Mr. Obama’s presidency, “he’s not in charge of setting the agenda,” Mr. McConnell said. Since Republicans captured the House in 2010, Democrats and the media have blamed them for blocking the president’s agenda and creating gridlock. “Factually, we know the dysfunction was in the Senate,” Mr. McConnell insisted, referring to then Majority Leader Harry Reid shelving hundreds of House-passed bills without debate or a vote. Messrs. Obama and Reid are now positioned to be obstructionists-in-chief, starting with the Senate vote this week to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada. It came within a single vote of passing in November. But three Democrats who voted “no” have retired and a fourth was defeated. Now there are at least 60 votes to overcome another Reid-led filibuster, though probably not 67 votes to override the president’s veto. Mr. McConnell believes that voters choose divided government, as they did in the midterm election, when “they want us to look for areas of agreement.” President Clinton “didn’t have the House or the Senate for six of his eight years,” Mr. McConnell noted at a postelection news conference. Yet welfare reform and three balanced budgets were achieved during the Clinton administration. Mr. Obama is less kindly disposed to divided government. Dealing with Republicans is not his strength. Nonetheless, his aides have said he plans to spend more time courting members of Congress and less on executive actions. The White House touted this approach before, in 2013. At the time, after several meetings, Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) told reporters that the president’s overtures were not “ever in earnest, it was optics.” The most noteworthy feature of earlier negotiations was the president’s reluctance to make concessions. And now the left-wing base of the Democratic Party is pressing him to resist Republicans rather than compromise. But the president is the biggest impediment to bipartisan deal-making. He is a clumsy negotiator. In 2011 Mr. Obama botched a $4 trillion agreement on raising taxes and cutting spending by demanding more in taxes at the last minute. That same year, when a deal on increasing the debt limit seemed out of reach, Vice President Joe Biden had to arrange a compromise with Mr. McConnell, then Senate minority leader. Mr. Obama isn’t likely to defer to Mr. Biden in 2015. With the improved economy and with buzz about a “liberated” president on the brink of a comeback, his job-approval rating has inched up to the high 40s. In his weekly radio address before Christmas, Mr. Obama declared that “America’s resurgence is real.” At the same time, his criticism of Republicans and veto threats have toughened. Republicans will have to change their tactics, he said in an NPR interview last week. “It’s not enough for them simply to grind the wheels of Congress to a halt and then blame me,” he said, adding: “They have to show they can responsibly govern.” After vetoing only two bills in six years, he said, “now I suspect there are going to some times where I’ve got to pull that pen out.” On an important trade bill—the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)—the question is whether Mr. Obama will be as aggressive in seeking “fast track” authority as he is in attacking Republicans. The treaty would eliminate tariffs and generally harmonize the economies of the U.S., Mexico and Canada with those of nine mostly Asian countries. Fast track is crucial because it would allow a vote in Congress on the treaty without amendments. TPP negotiations are said to be near completion. The Democratic base is a serious problem for the president, because fast track is poison to the left, especially labor unions and environmental groups. But without fast track, the treaty will die. Other countries will balk for fear TPP as negotiated would be altered later by Congress. When Mr. Obama called for a fast-track vote a year ago, Mr. Reid refused. This raised suspicions that his rebuff was prearranged to let the president off the hook. Mr. McConnell won’t be so helpful. “He’s going to have to step up and sell that to Democrats,” the senator said. “I can’t believe he’d want [TPP] to fail.” On tax reform, the president and Republicans are far apart. The GOP model is the 1986 reform bill, which killed tax preferences and special breaks, broadened the tax base and lowered rates. Mr. McConnell said this year’s version must be revenue-neutral and treat small businesses the same as big companies. If the corporate income-tax rate drops, he said, the rate should also be cut for small business owners taxed as individuals. Mr. Obama wants to take $1 trillion from tax reform and spend it on infrastructure—that is, he wants a tax increase. But he appears to understand that this won’t fly. “I think an all-Democratic Congress would have provided an even better opportunity for tax reform,” he said in his year-end news conference. It would have if raising taxes is your goal. Is there a middle ground? Both sides want to repair roads and bridges. One way is to raise the federal gas tax, currently 18.4 cents a gallon. Mr. McConnell says no. “We all know we’re not going to pass a gas-tax increase,” he told me. So much for the supposedly easy-to-negotiate issues. The harder GOP tactics will stir slugfests. Mr. McConnell intends to use what he calls “the single best tool we have” to cut spending and curb Obama policies. So-called riders will be attached to appropriations bills that Democrats may be eager to pass. One example: defining full-time work as 40 hours a week, instead of the current 30 hours, when ObamaCare kicks in and an employer is required to provide health insurance. To kill this rider, would the president veto a bill that funds student loans? Maybe not. With 247 votes in the House, Republicans can attach riders whenever they like. With 54 votes in the Senate, Republicans are constrained. They are six short of stopping Democratic filibusters. But Mr. McConnell told me that “a pool of Democrats” has contacted him privately since the election. “They do not seem to want to take orders” from the president, he said. If he can round up a handful of them—perhaps two handfuls—to break filibusters, Mr. Obama may have to use his veto pen more than he expected. And conciliation and compromise will be put off for another day. Mr. Barnes, executive editor of the Weekly Standard, is a Fox News commentator.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 01:55:41 +0000
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