On Tuesday night, House Republican leaders suffered an embarrassing setback when members of their own party scuttled an attempt to extend key provisions of the PATRIOT Act. The way it unfolded suggested that the GOP didn’t see the rebellion coming — that they weren’t aware that a meaningful chunk of their own party opposed their efforts, and wouldn’t have their arms twisted.
The bill required a two-thirds super-majority to pass under rules required to expedite legislation. Leaders thought they had it in the bag. They came up seven votes short.
Under the Democratic leadership of Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, this rarely happened — if legislation, including PATRIOT Act reauthorization, came to the floor, it was because they had the votes. And today, Democrats are relishing in Tuesday’s mishap.
“I think the Republican leaders have a real challenge,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters Wednesday morning. “I think their party is divided.”
The truth of the matter is that Tuesday’s PATRIOT Act foible can be undone under the normal, more time-consuming rules. But Republican leaders are having a hard time explaining why they decided to press ahead with something controversial without being sure they had it in the bag.
Asked Wednesday morning why the bill was brought up under expedited rules, a terse House Speaker John Boehner simply replied, “it was.”
But Hoyer cautioned that this could be a harbinger for their entire substantive agenda: the GOP has promised major spending cuts, a hiked debt ceiling, and deficit reduction. And somehow or other they’ll have to deliver.
“I think they have a very difficult challenge in their party between those who understand that when you get down to real cases — I think this is what Mr. Boehner meant when he said we’re going to have an ‘adult moment’ when we deal with the debt limit,” Hoyer said. “We’ll see whether or not in fact Mr. Boehner’s adult moment is met by adults.”
To underscore the challenges the GOP faces, Hoyer pointed out that thus far their successes have been largely symbolic, perhaps indicating that support for a far-reaching conservative agenda just isn’t there.
“If you’re going to get a handle on the deficit, pretending you’re going to get a handle on the deficit by focusing on about 14 percent of the budget is not reasonable, not possible, and to some degree demagoguing,” Hoyer said. Real cuts require controversial policy changes, he said, “very few of which the Republicans are pursuing at this point in time. They are for the most part pursuing this YouCut/YouTube website plebiscite that they’re running, and I’m not sure who’s voting on these, but…the one they have on this week was apparently number one in their hit parade, and the CBO says it scores zero savings. Zero savings.”
As his weekly press availability drew to a close, a reporter asked him whether he had any vote-counting tips for GOP Whip Kevin McCarthy. Hoyer demurred, “I don’t think he’d want my help.”
