Trump: To Hell With The Republican Swamp!

President Donald Trump’s unexpected decision to spurn his Republican allies in Congress by striking a short-term debt-limit deal with Democrats leaves the GOP reeling and lawmakers bracing for a bruising battle in December.

Trump’s move undercut GOP leaders in the House and Senate, as well as his own Treasury secretary, who had been arguing for a longer-term extension. It also left Republicans, who were blindsided by the deal, angry and disappointed with their own leaders and, to a lesser degree, Trump.

"Democrats got exactly what they wanted,” House Freedom Caucus head Mark Meadows said Wednesday, adding that the deal “gives them the greatest leverage in the world to get exactly what they want later." He said his caucus can’t stop the deal.

During an Oval Office meeting Wednesday, Trump accepted a proposal by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his House counterpart, Nancy Pelosi, to tie a three-month suspension of the debt limit to a Hurricane Harvey relief measure -- and throw in a stopgap continuing resolution to fund the government into December.

The episode provided the latest illustration of the bind Republicans find themselves in. Even though they control the White House and both chambers of Congress, they’ve been unable to set aside their own differences to get much done. Instead, this latest deal may have simply handed Democrats the upper hand heading into a confrontational end-of-the-year negotiation. Your Watchman believes Trump’s deal demonstrates that the Republican Party is bankrupt. Some have even speculated that Trump may run as an independent next time, if indeed he runs.

The agreement sets up what could be a major fight in December over government funding that is expected to include Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico and his decision to end a program that lets young undocumented immigrants stay in the U.S., as well as perhaps the debt ceiling.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, who was in the meeting with Trump, didn’t see it coming. Hours before Trump’s deal, he had told reporters that the Democratic proposal for a short-term debt limit deal would be “unworkable” and “ridiculous.”

By late Wednesday, Senate Republicans released a new version of a Harvey aid bill that included the debt ceiling extension and would fund the government through Dec. 8. It also would nearly double the total disaster funding to $15.25 billion from what the House passed earlier in the day. The additional funding would go toward the Community Development Block Grant program to address housing needs in disaster zones.

"The Pelosi-Schumer-Trump deal is bad," Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska said in a statement.

Trump himself might have agreed, at least back in 2013 when he was still considering a run for the White House. He wrote on Twitter then, "The worst negotiators in history (otherwise known as Republicans) have just offered to suspend debt ceiling for four months. Pathetic!"

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tried to put the best face on the deal while noting that Trump cut it with Democratic leaders.

“The president can speak for himself,” McConnell told reporters. “But his feeling was that we needed to come together, to not create a picture of divisiveness at a time of genuine national crisis.”

Congress is rushing to pass Hurricane Harvey relief funds by the end of the week because the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster-relief fund is set to run out of money Friday as a more powerful storm, Hurricane Irma, bears down on Florida.

The House voted 419-3 on Wednesday to pass $7.85 billion to provide relief to tens of thousands of homeowners from flooding caused by Harvey in Texas and other parts of the Gulf Coast. The measure includes $7.4 billion in FEMA disaster funds and $450 million for the Small Business Administration. Additional FEMA funding is to be provided later, according to House aides.

Several leaders of conservative groups said they blamed Republican leaders, not Trump, for the deal to add the debt-limit and spending measures to the House bill. They said McConnell and Ryan hadn’t been able to push forward a conservative plan to raise the debt limit in a measure that cut spending.