As House Republicans publicly grapple over how to advance President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda, House Democrats are looking across the aisle with some schadenfreude.
Just four years ago, Democrats were hotly debating how to enact President Joe Biden’s ambitious legislative agenda as they faced similar problems — a tiny legislative majority and the gauntlet of the Senate parliamentarian. Democrats ultimately ended up splitting the agenda into two separate bills, pandemic aid legislation and a massive social spending package, and the legislative wrangling consumed much of the first two years of Biden’s presidency.
Hill Republicans are debating whether to try to pass one budget reconciliation bill with all of their border, energy and tax priorities, or to split it into two packages. President-elect Donald Trump has advocated for one bill while also keeping the door open to the two-bill strategy.
And some Democrats are doubting Republicans will be able to get anything done.
“I’m counting on them to be as ineffective as they were in the last Congress. But some of the stuff that they’re talking about is really beyond the pale,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.).
“It seems to me that they’re having a great deal of difficulty in terms of sequencing what they want to emphasize,” said Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee.
While Democrats wish they held the gavels, they don’t envy the monumental task of trying to enact legislation through the budget reconciliation process to circumvent the Senate filibuster.
“Good luck,” said Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.), a member of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. “They’ve got to decide on the strategy, and I think that Donald Trump agrees with whoever he speaks with last, so that’s why you have the ‘one bill, two bills.’ That makes it more difficult if you don’t know if you’re gonna go for one package or two, you can’t really start negotiations and see what’s gonna be in that package.”
