WASHINGTON — Senator Chuck Schumer gathered in his Capitol office Thursday night awaiting a climactic meeting with Kirsten Cinema. This was a key holdout on climate change, tax and health care deals negotiated in his painstaking negotiations. Then a loud boom and flash of a powerful thunderstorm rocked Washington. , to set the flicker of the light.
Mr. Schumer and his aides were so close to a signature legislative achievement that capped a staggering string of victories, and they glanced anxiously at each other, thinking that might be a bad sign. A 50-50 Senate, a pandemic that kept Democrats constantly speculating about who could vote, and the difficulty of managing a largely unruly Congress made them superstitious.
“I’ve always been a worrier, but a happy worrier,” said New York Democrat Majority Leader Schumer.
It was an amazing turn of fate. Just a few weeks ago, under the weight of Senator Joe’s resistance, Mr. Schumer, the Democratic agenda, and the party’s chances of maintaining a majority in the Senate all looked disappointing.Democrat Manchin III of West Virginia.
Instead, the Democrats not only won their biggest prizes, the party’s climate and tax law, but capped off a highly productive run for a Congress well-known for paralysis. This includes the passage of the first bipartisan gun safety law in a generation, a bill for the production of giant microchips and scientific research to strengthen America’s competitiveness with China, and the It included health care measures.
The string of successes is all the more pleasing to Democrats, as they have changed their stance and given the political advantage of making themselves look bad by temporarily blocking legislation to help sick veterans. It was one of the climate agreements.
“We’ve had an extraordinary six weeks,” Schumer said in an interview, calling the climate, health and tax measures “the most comprehensive bill to affect Americans in decades.” .
It was uncertain whether he could achieve this result. Unlike his predecessor, Mr. Schumer, who is not known as a good tactician or a talented legislator, has long struggled in production because he needs all the votes from ideologically mixed Democrats. I’ve been Even his allies wondered whether he was too driven by his desire to be liked, or driven by his own personal political considerations to avoid a potential major challenge from the Left. I wondered if I could demonstrate the necessary ruthlessness.
Schumer said the main requirement is stamina, not bare knuckles.
“This is the hardest job I’ve ever had: a 50-50 Senate, a big agenda, and an uncompromising Republican,” Schumer said. It was the tenacity from “Good luck, good luck. Look at all the pitfalls we faced to get this done.”
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The shaking in the Capitol was palpable. Democrats hoped that a victory in the legislature, combined with a national abortion struggle they felt was swinging the political climate in their favor, might allow them to keep control of the Senate. At one time, they thought they had defeated Senator Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican and minority leader with a history of successfully disrupting the Democratic Party.
Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal said: “It’s been an exhilarating, hopeful and truly ecstatic atmosphere with the progress we’ve made over the past few weeks.
Mr. Schumer won without deep White House involvement. Biden cites his extensive experience in arranging bipartisan deals in the Senate to run for president, handing over much of the responsibility of working out the details to him. The final negotiations with Mr. Manchin were conducted almost entirely in secrecy.
Republicans licked their wounds as Schumer-led Democrats pushed the bill. Given that Biden’s popularity is still waning and consumer goods prices are rising, they aren’t convinced that the Democrats have gotten out of the political hole with a bill they dub the Inflation Reduction Act. I did.
“With inflation at 9.1%, the highest in 40 years, our families are suffering. . “It’s the end of the month and they ran out of money before the month was over.”
But Democrats point to Medicare’s approval of the long-sought power to negotiate lower drug prices as appealing to voters, and the general public that Democrats are finally getting things done in the Capitol. They revel in the possibility of reminding voters that Republicans voted against the drug pricing bill, telling Democrats to limit the monthly cost of insulin for private insurance companies to $35. forced him to withdraw his proposal to do so.
They also noted that the climate change clause was a big step forward, though not as much as Democrats had originally hoped, before Manchin forced Democrats to scale back their targets.
Senator Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts Democrat and climate leader, said, “This is a historic climate bill and it wasn’t on the scoreboard a month ago.” . “Senator Schumer, working with Manchin, was able to bring out the key climate provisions we needed. It was just what I needed to get started.”
Democrats also got some support from Republicans. Not only did the failure of the veterans bill fall into their hands, but the Democrats threatened to block the microchip bill if the Democrats moved forward with climate change and tax bills. Motivation for seeking backfired.
Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said, “Any time you threaten a bill you support because other bills won’t get you there, you’re in a bad position.” It’s just bad. It was very political.”
McConnell was criticized by the left, but he was also criticized by the right for being too lenient with Democrats on bills like anti-microchips and gun control. But McConnell also has his eyes on the midterm elections, and he knows Republicans need suburban voters.
“Just because the government is tightly divided doesn’t mean it’s doing nothing,” McConnell told Fox News last week. “I don’t think having a Democrat in the White House means that Republicans can’t do anything for the good of the country during that time.”
This approach favored Democrats at a crucial time in the heart of the election campaign.
“There’s a clear shift in momentum,” said Senator Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat and head of the party’s Senate campaign division. “We feel like we’re in a really good place. Here we are into August and Labor Day starts. If you look at where the numbers are, the candidates are all doing really well in a tough environment. .”
After recess, Schumer and fellow Democrats will schedule politically charged votes on issues they think can show their strengths and keep Republicans on the ground, including same-sex marriage and oil prices. and will try to impose their success.
But even when he was on the cusp of scoring big, Schumer didn’t miss a chance. “Not yet, not yet,” Schumer warned him as environmental advocacy leaders hailed him as a hero after an event outside the Capitol on Thursday.
Schumer said the results highlighted a key difference from McConnell, who is known more for blockades and repealing laws than for passing legislation.
“He’s proud of his cemetery,” Schumer said. “He doesn’t get things done, he wants to be proud of what he’s done.”