To update a post from a few weeks ago, there’s been progress between Congress and the White House over funding for a federal transportation bill. Some are suggesting that the House GOP caved to Bush’s concerns, but I see it the other way.
To refresh your memory, a massive (read: expensive) highway and mass transit appropriations bill has been working its way through Congress for several months. Bush, anxious to appear responsible in an election year, said he’d support a bill that cost no more than $256 billion. The House was weighing a relatively modest bill with a $275 billion price tag, less expensive than the Senate’s version but more than the White House’s. Many House leaders on both sides of the aisle thought, in light of the Senate version, they were showing some real restraint in an election year.
The White House balked and threatened to veto the House version, insisting it cost too much. The House, including most Republicans, didn’t care and passed their $275 billion bill anyway. In fact, the vote wasn’t even close — 357 to 65. Bush’s threat was seen as meaningless, or worse, a motivating factor to vote for it, not against it.
The Hill reported today that the GOP was getting a little nervous about this showdown. Bush hasn’t vetoed anything his entire term and it seemed odd to start with a transportation bill that has strong bipartisan backing. On the other hand, Bush would be really embarrassed if the House overrode his veto, which the chamber had the votes to do. The Hill said Hastert made concessions to make Bush happy.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) has decided to avoid an embarrassing election-year veto of the transportation reauthorization bill at all costs, say Republican sources on the Hill.
Hastert, the House’s point person in negotiations with the Bush administration, has decided to pass on a 30- or 60-day extension of the transportation bill and use the extra time to whittle down the cost to a level acceptable to the president.
That sounds awfully conciliatory until you get to the good part:
GOP leaders believe the White House will accept a transportation reauthorization bill totaling $275 billion over six years.
Now, tell me, who’s getting the better end of this deal? Bush said $256 billion for the bill and not a penny more. The House said $275 billion is reasonable. There’s some contentious discussions and the White House is now “willing to accept” a bill that costs $275 billion.
I don’t claim to be an expert on negotiations, but it sounds to me like Bush blinked.
Of course, Bush could still back up his line-in-the-sand threat and veto the legislation.
Republican political observers have said the president is itching to veto the transportation bill because he has been stung by criticism from members of the GOP’s conservative base for allowing the rate of federal spending to surge during his first three years in office. A veto of the pork-laden bill, they argue, would burnish the president’s bona fides among fiscal conservatives.
But that’s a problematic course. Congress could override the veto, and even if it didn’t, it would look bad that Republicans were fighting Republicans over a mass transit bill.
GOP leaders believe that a presidential veto of a major bill and a possible override of that veto by the Republican-controlled House and Senate would be bad politics six months before an election, especially since President Bush has not yet vetoed a single bill during his first term.
Moreover, the House doesn’t like the idea of Bush triangulating against them in an election year.
[O]ne rank-and-file GOP member said that House leaders are not enthusiastic about the president’s running as a fiscal conservative in contrast to the GOP-controlled Congress.
The lawmaker said that as Election Day nears “it’s every branch for itself,” referring to the diverging interests of the White House and Congress.
Gotta love it when the Republicans are fighting amongst themselves and using phrases like “every branch for itself.”