We’re 24 days into the Trump Error. And there has been little legislative activity. As of the morning of the 13th, there have been two bills that he has signed. The first was a bill that waived requirements for his Secretary of Defense nominee to be the Secretary of Defense. The second is a two page technical correction bill for the Government Accountability Office to get more data. That sounds like a perfectly lovely law on the face of it but it is not a major bill.
Why does this matter?
The first 100 days is the easiest time for legislation to pass and for major structural changes to get pulled in the desired direction of a determined trifecta. After 100 days, the opposition will have gotten its act together and the mid-term election cycle has gotten started so marginal majority members won’t want to piss off too many potential groups of supporters by making choices.
At this point in Obama's 1st term, he had signed the Lilly Ledbetter Act, enacted SCHIP expansion, & passed a stimulus bill in Congress. https://t.co/ydwGU1jyzv
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) February 12, 2017
The Democrats in 2009 had both a not damaged President and larger majorities in the House and Senate and they were able to address major priorities in the first month while working on Dodd-Frank and healthcare at the same time. This Congress has not been able to get anything more than a minor technical corrections act out. And given that healthcare reform is going to suck out a bit of oxygen in the room for quite a long time as Republican health policy (don’t spend any money on the sick) is quite unpopular and is running against the status quo bias of a flawed but helpful system that does spend money on the sick, things are moving slower than I feared.
We need to continue to organize, and continue to make it very clear that supporting Trump will come at a massive electoral cost for the Republican party so that we can continue to see the survival and infighting instincts slow walk everything possible. And we need to continue to applaud the Democratic Senate caucus for slow walking everything that they can not stop.