1/3/19
Incoming speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to be clear about what the new Democratic House majority will not be: They will not, she insists, act like the Republicans. “We believe that we will not become them,” she said in a New Year’s Day phone interview during a visit to her native Baltimore. “We’re not going to do to them what they did to President Obama. . . . It’s really important for us not to become them and certainly not to become like the president of the United States in terms of how he speaks without any basis of fact, evidence, data or truth. “We will respect each other’s opinions, and respect the truth.” Pelosi also pushed back hard against the idea that, in holding Trump and his administration accountable, Democrats would be engaging in some sort of investigative orgy. On the contrary, she said, Article I of the Constitution grants Congress responsibility for “oversight over the agencies of government.” The Democrats’ assumption of power in the House this week will alter U.S. politics in ways that go well beyond their capacity to make life miserable for the president and his lieutenants. The woman who will return as speaker after an eight-year absence sounded almost gleeful in discussing the planks in the House platform. She was characteristically disciplined in sticking to the issues that helped elect the ideologically diverse group of 63 new Democratic members who gave her the opportunity to wield the gavel.
At the top of the list is a sweeping political reform package linked to a new Voting Rights Act. Taking on the “special interests,” she said, will “give people confidence” in the rest of the Democratic wish list that includes health care (with a focus on prescription drug prices and protecting people with preexisting conditions), workforce training and “building the infrastructure of America in a green way.” The House’s first order of business is not how she expected to start: the imperative of reopening the government. The House plans to pass a series of spending bills that have already been approved by the Republican-majority Senate. A separate bill would extend existing funding for the Department of Homeland Security (where any money for a wall-like thing would reside) to allow a month of negotiation. “If they reject this,” she said of the prospect that Senate Republicans would reject their own bills, “it would be highly irresponsible, and it would be a manifestation of the president of the United States making fools of them.” Republican senators, of course, may prefer that to being attacked by Trump. This is what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) suggested Wednesday in saying he’d reject any House bills that Trump wouldn’t sign. Still, Pelosi’s swipe reflected the tenacious approach to negotiating her supporters prize. And then there’s the other side of Pelosi, who insisted on ending our conversation by declaring, “We want America’s heart to be full of love as we go forward.” A delightful thought. But for Trump, it will be tough love.
