Trump's deal with Democrats lets GOP roll his eyes

Every few months, President Donald Trump enters the negotiating room with the Democrats and everyone leaves happy, with the exception of the President's party.

This week's caucus on a $ 2 trillion infrastructure bill was no different, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer moved away from the House. White House with an agreement in principle and the promise to meet again. But Republicans have rejected the agreement on shaking hands even before some Democrats reach the Capitol.

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"The likelihood of this happening at $ 2 trillion – just in the face of what I've seen – is pie in the sky," said Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va. ). "But I would like to have a big infrastructure project."

It's a familiar model for the president, a democrat who has not cared about everything from immigration reform to gun control, but that was taken over by the GOP.

And Tuesday's 90-minute infrastructure meeting, which took place in the context of an increasingly conflictual relationship between Congress and the White House, followed the same path. Trump, who, according to the Democrats, has discussed a whole range of topics and seemed to want to be part of the donors, has opted for $ 2 trillion for infrastructure – an impressive figure that exceeds far what the Democrats have even asked.

For the Republicans, it was a bit already seen. In 2017, Pelosi (D-Calif.) And Schumer (DN.Y.) came out of a Chinese dinner with Trump by claiming that they had signed an agreement in principle on the subject. Immigration and border security, but that agreement was to collapse as soon as Republicans got wind of it. In another televised immigration pow-wow, Trump voiced support for a clean DACA bill, pushing GOP leader to the House, Kevin McCarthy of California, to step in and clarify the opposition's position. President.

And at a bipartisan meeting at the White House on gun control last year, Trump backed anathema positions to his party and to the NRA, before going back on his stand against the blame conservatives.

This time, the Republicans had to control the president from the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue because they did not have a seat at the table. But the message was basically the same: Trump's tentative infrastructure deal with the Democrats is nothing more than a chimera that will not go far in a GOP-controlled Senate.

"Many of us like to watch … the balloons that it floats. And often, they are extreme and ambitious, "said Senator Kevin Cramer (DR-N.D.). "And then, repression often comes from one's own party."

Indeed, Republican repression came – and it was fast.

"I do not see where the payments will come from," said Rep. Mark Meadows (CR), one of Trump's closest allies on Capitol Hill.

"It's enormous", Sam Graves (R-Mo.), Representative of the House of Commons Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

When asked if a package of this size would have a real chance of going to Congress, Graves did not mince his words: "No," he says, literally dismissing the idea from his hand.

And Senator John Thune (R-S.D.) Insisted that any law must be paid in full and sought to put the huge price tag into perspective.

"Two billion dollars is really ambitious. If you increase gasoline tax by 35 cents, for example, the inflation index, you will only earn half a trillion dollars, "said Thune, a former President of the trade.

Trump often looks more like a democrat when he talks about the need for a "big infrastructure project" and makes fun of the country's "third world airports". But the president's desire to reach an infrastructure deal does not stem solely from his love of the roads. and bridges: Trump, more and more frustrated by the impasse on Capitol Hill, sees the opportunity to deliver a key campaign promise for 2020 while being flexible.

"I will drive on this," Trump told the room on Tuesday, according to sources here. "I'd like to do something. It may not be typically Republican.

The idea of ​​a massive rebuilding program has long been giving stomach burns to Republicans, who complain that federal transportation spending tends to favor more urban and blue areas.

Instead, the GOP prefers to rely on public-private partnerships to revitalize the country's infrastructure, a model proposed by Trump's own administration in 2017. But the president has put cold water at this plan during his meeting with the Democrats, the same stupid caller, "to the surprise of some Republicans and the delights of Democrats.

Yet the biggest surprise – or the biggest disappointment – could come in three weeks, when Trump and the Democrats meet again to discuss potential funding mechanisms, an even more difficult and conflicting issue.

While most Republicans are fiercely opposed to an increase in the gas tax, Trump has already declared himself open to the idea, forcing his party to once again post a stop sign. Yet even the Democrats who attended the White House meeting did not hold their breath that they had managed to break through with the president.

"When I got home last night, I thought about the meeting and I said: [of paying for it]we are sort of in the background, "said Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). "It's certainly part of a pattern if you look at how some of these issues have evolved."

Another reason for skepticism: Some Democrats say Trump must consider reconsidering some of the GOP's 2017 tax cuts – its ultimate legislative achievement – to fund new investments in infrastructure.

That "made me laugh," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). "It's not serious."