If redstate.com's Erick Erickson is to be believed, Congress' brief September Sojourn in DC will be anything but the low-key and uneventful layover advertised. Republicans have been telling themselves and the electorate that the very best thing for their mid-term prospects will be to slither in, pass a clean continuing resolution to keep things humming, then beat it out of town until election day. For some, that will mean one more month of campaigning but for many it will mean quietly biding their time until the Magic of Gerrymandering kicks in.
No one, on either side of the aisle, or elsewhere, for that matter, is expecting that any substantive legislative work will be done to address our current foreign or domestic predicaments. There won't be any bi-partisan face-offs to enjoy but, if Erickson has a clue what he is talking about, there will almost undoubtedly be some of the intra-party histrionics that the GOP have incorporated into their workaday doings.
Intellectually, party leadership know that the best thing for Republican candidates to finish out this term will be to keep a low profile, grit their teeth, demonstrate some unity and, ideally, not remind the public and/or the media too much of past highlights of their lumbering procession toward in-the-toilet approval ratings.
But here's what Erickson -- the ultra-Right's self-appointed RINO sniffer-dog -- sees coming in his Magic 8-Ball:
First, they will reauthorize the Ex-Im bank, which is something K Street is desperate to see happen.
Second, current reports are that they will spend more than the original Paul Ryan — Patti Murray deal that had included a tax hike. However, that is subject to change.
Third, and probably most significantly, they will make sure the continuing resolution expires after the election, but before January. That will free them up to go back for a lame duck session where outgoing members can use their votes to pass amnesty, tax increases, and further extend the Ex-Im bank.
Erickson frames all of this in his trademark Calvinist mise-en-scène in which "Crony Capitalists, total sluts for K Street and Wall Street" plot their cynical course to "increase federal spending, collaborate on amnesty, and prepare a grab bag of pork fill requests for K Street;" destroying the tender trust of pure grass-roots social conservatives, for filthy lucre.
And sounding rather defeatist, when he finishes, warning readers "Get ready. It's coming." But I suspect that he fully appreciates the incendiary quality of those particular issues on the Cranky Caucus. I also suspect that Erickson is rather hankering for a fight because he really seems to relish watching anti-establishment social conservatives and establishment fiscal conservatives go for each other's throats. I don't think that he'll be disappointed . . . because the seeds of dissension are already sprouting.
When Kevin McCarthy was preening himself for Eric Cantor's leadership vacancy, back in June, he warmed the cockles of Club for Growth and Heritage Action hearts when he told Chris Wallace that he saw no need to prevent the Export-Import Bank from sunsetting on September 30th.
They were listening and reminded McCarthy that they were listening in a letter sent yesterday:
We were greatly encouraged by your comments on Fox News Sunday on June 22nd, in which you stated that the Export-Import Bank is ‘something government does not have to be involved in. The private sector can do it. You also quite explicitly answered ‘yes’ to the question of whether or not you would allow the charter for the bank to expire.
The
US Chamber of Commerce has a somewhat different view, however:
At a recent House hearing on reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, lawmakers were handed a friendly reminder in the form of index cards noting which companies in their districts receive funds from the bank and how many people are employed as a result of those projects. The lobbying trick came directly from lobbyists for corporations, including Defense Department cash-cows Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA) and General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE).
And that's just Ex-Im.
Passing a clean CR seems like quite a stretch for this lot, especially a CR based on the Ryan-Murray deal -- that would truly surprise me. Clearly, that is GOP leadership's objective but nobody seems to pay much attention to them.