The New York Times
By Peter Baker
September 8, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/us/politics/trump-democrats-republicans.html
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Friday rejected Republican complaints about his decision to work with Democrats on fiscal and immigration issues, chiding his own party for failing to advance major legislation and calling on congressional leaders to begin overhauling the tax code immediately.
As the rift between the president and Republican lawmakers widened, the president argued that he had no choice but to collaborate with the Democratic minority to get business done, especially because the opposition has the power to block bills in the Senate, where Republicans do not have the 60 votes required to overcome a filibuster.
“Republicans, sorry, but I’ve been hearing about Repeal & Replace for 7 years, didn’t happen!” he wrote in a series of morning messages on Twitter, referring to the failure of party leaders to pass legislation overturning former President Barack Obama’s health care program. “Even worse, the Senate Filibuster Rule will never allow the Republicans to pass even great legislation. 8 Dems control — will rarely get 60 (vs. 51) votes. It is a Repub Death Wish!”
Mr. Trump pressed his party allies to accelerate efforts to revamp the tax code and lower taxes on corporations and workers, perhaps his best chance to pass a major priority item before the end of the year. “Republicans must start the Tax Reform/Tax Cut legislation ASAP,” he wrote. “Don’t wait until the end of September. Needed now more than ever. Hurry!”
The Twitter messages came as Republican leaders chafed at his agreement this week with the Democratic leaders, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, to finance the government and pay its debts for the next three months.Continue reading the main story
Mr. Trump blindsided the Republican leaders, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Speaker Paul D. Ryan, who were pressing for an 18-month deal. Republicans complained that Mr. Trump had empowered the Democrats and made it harder to come up with longer-term fiscal legislation in December.
The president, however, was energized by the deal and the sense of progress after seven months of frustrated legislative efforts and he reached out to Mr. Schumer and Ms. Pelosi on Thursday to see if they could work out further deals. Among other things, he signaled openness to a plan advanced by Mr. Schumer to end the perennial showdowns over the debt ceiling and agreed to a request by Ms. Pelosi to publicly reassure younger illegal immigrants worried about deportation.
Immigration may be one area where the two sides could come together. Mr. Trump this week rescinded Mr. Obama’s program protecting immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as minors on the grounds that it went beyond a president’s authority. But he has offered to work with Democrats to fashion legislation that would reinstate the program on firmer legal footing, possibly in exchange for money for his plan to build a wall along the border with Mexico.
Mr. Trump has also begun to seek Democratic votes for his tax overhaul, something he did not do in a sustained way during the health care fight earlier in the year. He is alternately pressuring and wooing Democrats representing red states like Missouri and North Dakota and may find some support among moderates in the opposition party.
“I think he’s becoming a little more pragmatic and, frankly, becoming a little more presidential in his ability to recognize that you don’t get anything done around here unless you can find ways to work with both sides,” Representative Jackie Speier, Democrat of California, said on CNN on Friday.
Watching on the sidelines were Republicans stewing at a president of their own party schmoozing with “Chuck and Nancy,” as Mr. Trump called them. But they presume it will not last and that he will come to understand that he cannot trust Democrats nor find common ground with them on issues like the border wall. By postponing larger questions of government spending and the debt ceiling until December, they said, he simply gave Democrats weapons to use to hinder or force concessions on the tax overhaul legislation which may be coming to a critical debate around that time.
“This was a bad deal, this was a foolish deal,” Representative Sean P. Duffy, Republican of Wisconsin, said on Fox Business Network. “He shot from the hip and he missed the target, and I think he thinks it’s great now, but you guys all wait, when we’re trying to do this big issues that we promised, this is going to come blow back right in our face and it’s going to be a big problem.”
The deal that Mr. Trump struck with the Democrats won final passage on Friday as the House voted 316 to 90 to pass it a day after the Senate voted 80 to 17. The legislation, now heading to Mr. Trump for his signature, will keep the government open and solvent into December while providing $15.3 billion for disaster relief as Texas cleans up from Hurricane Harvey and Florida braces for Hurricane Irma. The dissenters in both houses were all Republicans.
Mr. Trump planned to leave by midafternoon for Camp David, where he will host a Cabinet meeting over the weekend and monitor Irma’s arrival and the response to it. Mr. Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, invited every Cabinet member and their spouses and he will convene the fourth session with the group of his presidency on Saturday.
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