There are some minor victories for Democrats — rejected cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, language explicitly allowing federal funds to be spent on research into guns, a minor fix of the existing gun background check system and “$380 million to dole out to states to improve their election-related cybersecurity.”
There were a few bipartisan accomplishments, including funding to fight the opioid epidemic and inclusion of the Taylor Force Act, which limits funding to the Palestinian Authority until it stops supporting jailed terrorists and their families.
However, the bill might be more noteworthy for what it does not include. There is no fix for “dreamers.” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) — who was promised in exchange for her vote on the tax bill (that stripped out the individual mandate) measures to reduce Obamacare premium costs — was once again stiffed. Her proposal to restore cost-sharing reduction subsidies and fund state high-risk pools was left out of the omnibus. (As many observed at the time, she was snookered by Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.) And finally, the must-pass bill contains nothing that would protect special counsel Robert S. Mueller III from being fired.
All in all, there is much more continuity — with the exception of a needed hike in defense spending — than one might have expected from a GOP president and GOP Congress that vowed to “shake things up.” The era of big government and big deficits is here to stay. Thanks to the revenue-hemorrhaging tax bill and the spending hikes, the debt will grow. Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney’s most extreme cuts won’t happen.
Thanks to his willingness to let Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, senior adviser Stephen Miller and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) lead him around by the nose and nix a DACA-for-the-wall deal, Trump will not get the wall he constantly promises to his anti-immigrant base. For someone who has the majorities in both houses of Congress, this negotiation reflects a shocking level of ineptitude on the president’s part. You wonder when he will start “winning.”