Trump Undermines Agenda Push With Tweets
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WASHINGTON (CBSMiami) - As President Donald Trump tries to refocus to get his legislative agenda through Congress, his tweets are undermining his efforts.
On Thursday, the president meets with his legislative affairs team to talk about how to get his agenda items through Congress, including tax reform, a border wall and potentially another crack at health care.
Thursday morning, however, he took a swipe at the two men he'll need to get his agenda moving forward.
I requested that Mitch M & Paul R tie the Debt Ceiling legislation into the popular V.A. Bill (which just passed) for easy approval. They...
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2017
...didn't do it so now we have a big deal with Dems holding them up (as usual) on Debt Ceiling approval. Could have been so easy-now a mess!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2017
Congress has to raise the debt ceiling in order to avoid defaulting on loans. They also need a spending bill by September 30th to prevent the government from shutting down.
"I don't think anyone's interested in having a shutdown. I don't think it's in our interest to do so," said House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan, R-WI.
Publicly, the president and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel say they are united. Privately, however, they are feuding and the two men haven't spoken to each other in weeks.
On Thursday, Trump blamed McConnell again for the health care bill failure in the Senate.
The only problem I have with Mitch McConnell is that, after hearing Repeal & Replace for 7 years, he failed!That should NEVER have happened!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2017
McConnell joked that it was hard to be the Senate Leader with such a slim majority.
"It's a little bit like being a groundskeeper in a cemetery, everybody's under you but nobody's listening," he said. "That's what you get with 52 to 48."
Trump has urged McConnell to ditch the filibuster rule in order to sideline the Democrats. McConnell said that is off the table.
The president hinted Wednesday that he may veto any spending bill that comes out of Congress if it doesn't include his $1.6 billion dollar request for construction of a border wall. Such a measure would require support of 60 Senators, meaning at least eight Democrats would have to sign off on it which is highly unlikely to happen.
