The Buck Stops There

On Wednesday, four MAGOP members of the House bucked their party to vote with Democrats and pass the War Powers Act.  A measure that Trump opposes.

Yesterday, 18 MAGOP House members bucked their party again and voted with Democrats to pass a bill to provide military aid to Ukraine, a measure that Trump opposes.  In addition, the bill included a new round of sanctions on Russia.

None of this, of course, means that these will become law.  They still have to pass the Senate.  And then Trump can veto them. At that point, the bills would need a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate to override the veto.  

So, saying that “None of this, of course, means that these will become law” is the polite way of saying they are unlikely to become law. 

Although hold on just a moment.  It turns out that there is an aspect of the War Powers Act that says if both the House and Senate pass exactly the same resolution with exactly the same wording, it becomes a Concurrent Resolution and…becomes law, without the president able to veto it.  Because only Congress has the right to declare a war.

So…perhaps that does stand a chance. 

And if the Senate does end up passing a bill to provide military aid for Ukraine, which they’ve done before, Trump might (possibly…) find it difficult to veto that, since one of his campaign promises was to end Russia’s war against our ally Ukraine on Day One of his term.  And since one of his policies has been “peace through strength,” providing military aid to Ukraine, our ally, might be a bridge too far to veto.  Who knows?

Still, though, whatever the outcome with these two bills passed by the House -- and whatever happens with other upcoming measures where the MAGOPs vote with blind loyalty which they will, after having been lockstep in voting unanimously for anything and everything Trump wanted, it’s no small matter for have the House buck Trump twice and pass bills that he not only opposed but was so strongly adamant against.  And it happening two times bodes well for it happening again.  Since once a person pushes back against a bully and realize you survived, and even came away without a bruise, people tend to be willing to do it again.  And for any who question that -- we saw happen yesterday.

I would imagine that there are several factors for this.  They likely include that members in purple districts see the Mid-Term elections coming up, know these are issues their constituents support and want to save their seats.  And that members see Trump has only a 34% approval, and following him so closely is toxic in their districts and a risk to their re-election…and want to save their seats.  Also, some members have likely had their state primaries already and know they can’t have a primary challenge that Trump calls for.  And perhaps even a few saw that in Iowa, voters went against a Trump endorsement that was expected to be a guaranteed win.  And maybe there was one or more who are getting concerned about Trump’s more pronounced dementia.  And there also could be some House members who already see Trump just a few months away from being a lame duck. 

Or a combination of any of the above.

All of which raises concerns for Trump when Todd Blanche comes up before the Senate for confirmation as Attorney General.  And for whatever else comes up next that MAGOPs in Congress see as yet another bridge too far even for them -- especially with the Mid-Terms around the corner.  Not everything (or even most things) will reach that level for MAGOPs, because in the end they are still MAGOPs who enabled Trump and brought themselves here.  But there will be a "next".  Because Trump has dementia, which is degenerative. And it's not getting better for him, surrounded by unqualified incompetents.