President Donald Trump's administration could face serious consequences for playing hardball over budget cuts, according to one analyst.
Over the last few days, the GOP worked to ram through Trump's $9 billion rescission package that cuts money from foreign aid and public media outlets like NPR and PBS. Those efforts included holding an all-night vote-a-rama that began on Wednesday afternoon and ended in the early morning on Thursday.
The Senate passed the bill by a 51-48 margin. It now heads to the House of Representatives, where it faces an uncertain future.
Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told the Christian Science Monitor that the GOP should continue to use a "more partisan" approach to the appropriations process. Not only would this lead to the GOP getting more of what it wants, but it could also lead to "more bipartisanship," he argued.
Joe Perticone, national political reporter for The Bulwark, described Vought's logic as "somewhat obscure."
"My best guess for what he envisions is that Democrats will give up their opposition to Republican demands after being blamed for any government shutdown that results from their refusal to give in, no matter that the shutdown would be happening under a Republican governing trifecta," he wrote.
While the spending cuts seem like a win for Republicans, Perticone said they also have the potential to backfire on the party.
Perticone argued that the effort the GOP put into passing the rescissions bill put the party behind schedule to pass another government funding bill. The current funding bill is scheduled to end Sept. 30, and the GOP will need some Democratic votes to pass a new funding bill.
The last time Democrats were in a similar position, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) voted with Republicans to pass a continuing resolution and avoid a government shutdown. Democrats revolted against the decision and put so much pressure on Schumer that he canceled his book tour, Perticone recalled.
The rescissions bill process "[riled] the hell out of Democrats, so much so that it now seems likely that not enough of them will join with their GOP colleagues to keep the government open after September 30," Perticone argued.
