Busy day on the Trump-front yesterday...... there was the whole DACA fiasco, but even then his issues there were the same as this piece of news

...... he agreed with Democratic leaders to a 3 month debt ceiling hike, completely against GOP wishes. This is so aid can go tom Texas for Hurricane Harvey (and then along comes Irma)..... and they couldn't get aid out without a hike. It needed an action as the House is 3 weeks away from stalemate on the budget and the government shutting down in December.

Basically Trump has bypassed the Senate on both counts to get the ball rolling in each circumstance........ is this the beginning of Democrats relaxing the rhetoric towards him? And in so doing recognizing that his policy of clearing the swamp is not so bad?

How would you define / measure the success of "his policy of clearing the swamp"? It sounds like a meaningless sound bite to me.

Fair play to him for going against the GOP to get aid to those who deserve it, though, if what you're saying is right.

he can have policies, but it's the lawmakers that have to see them through. It's appearing more and more that it's the lawmakers (the "swamp") that are the problem, and Speaker Ryan has effectively been sidelined in one fail swoop to boot.

On the aid thing, to make the debt ceiling increase 3 months provides the Democrats with a clear card in the hand with budget negotiations, weakening GOP bargaining power... and they're ****** at him

So clearing the swamp means sidelining the lawmakers? Sounds worrying to me - a step towards dictatorship - but perhaps I've misunderstood you.

Again though, there's a time and a place for everything, and it seems like he's done the right thing on this occasion, if it was the only way to help those affected (as you can perhaps tell, I'm not very well informed on this particular story).

no, the lawmakers ARE the swamp. His deal is with Democratic leadership that (in UK terms) will form a "whip" on their side in the house

By "lawmakers", do you mean Congress? "swamp" or not (and as it's currently controlled by Republicans, I'd perhaps be inclined to agree, though I wouldn't use that term), would it not be damaging to US democracy to sideline or circumvent them with any regularity?

NRC wrote:Busy day on the Trump-front yesterday...... there was the whole DACA fiasco, but even then his issues there were the same as this piece of news

...... he agreed with Democratic leaders to a 3 month debt ceiling hike, completely against GOP wishes. This is so aid can go tom Texas for Hurricane Harvey (and then along comes Irma)..... and they couldn't get aid out without a hike. It needed an action as the House is 3 weeks away from stalemate on the budget and the government shutting down in December.

Basically Trump has bypassed the Senate on both counts to get the ball rolling in each circumstance........ is this the beginning of Democrats relaxing the rhetoric towards him? And in so doing recognizing that his policy of clearing the swamp is not so bad?

The GOP don't want to not increase the debt ceiling, they just want to use it as a hostage to get democrats to acquiesce to legislation and amendments they couldn't otherwise get thought congress even with complete control of it. The dems should refuse to pass anything but a clean debt ceiling increase and let the GOP shoot the hostage if they wish (they won't because it'll be a global economic disaster and the people who donate to them would lose billions to trillions of dollars).

Trump doesn't get any points for doing the not completely insane thing. Not being ******* retarded and threatening the global economy with a crash the likes hasn't been seen before should be the bare minimum required of a congressman let alone a senator or president.

Except, turtle, GOP wanted 12-18 months, allowing them to get through years of budget negotiations. Whereas the agreement with Democrats on 3 months goes against, and in effect Trump has not just guaranteed government works, but that GOP cannot bully the budget process for FY18