McConnell Waves White Flag, Steers GOP Away From ObamaCare Fights
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has urged GOP colleagues in private to avoid distracting political fights, yielding a surprising ceasefire on labor and health issues, two of the bloodiest battlegrounds in Congress.
For the first time in seven years, the Senate Appropriations Committee last week passed a bipartisan bill funding the departments of Labor and Health and Human Services. It’s the largest spending bill after the one for the Defense Department and a perennial source of partisan strife.
The bill is not likely to go anywhere because the House has slim chance of passing a Labor-HHS spending bill, but the drama-free passage was an important victory for McConnell, who has staked the Senate Republican majority on the argument that Republicans know how to govern.
“We went eight years in the minority and during that time we didn’t pass these bills and then the public’s outraged,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.). “Behind the closed doors of the conference, he emphasizes over and over again that he wants to keep the extraneous things off and do what people expect us to do.”
The full Senate is now poised to act on the Labor HHS bill, which hasn’t passed the chamber as a stand-alone measure since 2007. (Read more from “McConnell Steers Republicans Away From ObamaCare Fights” HERE)
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