Democrats wonder: What's our plan?

Steny Hoyer voted 'yes' on the latest stopgap bill; Nancy Pelosi voted 'no.' | John Shinkle/POLITICO By: Jonathan Allen March 17, 2011 04:39 AM EDT

Democrats in Congress are grappling with a question as they negotiate a spending deal: Who's in charge? The top two Democratic leaders in the House have twice split on whether to approve short-term government funding bills that cut billions from federal accounts. Senate Democrats haven’t put forward a long-term spending plan that can move through their chamber, and Democrats on both sides of the Capitol say they have no idea where the White House stands or who’s running the show. The result is a rank and file that is confused about its direction and unhappy with the leadership — or lack of it — on when to go along with the Republican-controlled House on budget matters and when to stand and fight. “The sum and substance of our strategy can’t be waiting for the other side to [mess] up,” Rep.Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) told bloggers Wednesday. But for many Democrats, that’s exactly what their leaders’ short-term strategy amounts to. In a follow-up interview with POLITICO, the Brooklyn liberal said if there is a more elegant Democratic plan, “it’s such a Jedi mind-meld going on that it hasn’t filtered down to my level.” On Tuesday, Democratic disarray allowed House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to push through a three-week spending bill cutting $6 billion from federal programs despite 54 of his own members breaking ranks. Democrats missed an opportunity to either leverage their votes for concessions or simply sink Boehner’s bill and show more clearly the depth of his problem with the right wing of his caucus. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and 103 of her colleagues voted no, while Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland and 84 other Democrats voted yes. The numbers were the exact reverse of the last short-term spending bill. Boehner’s inability to control his majority caucus helped obscure the divisions on the Democratic side — but they are real and they are deep. Some want to cut and cut now. Others say the failure to articulate a coherent anti-Republican message prevents Democrats from drawing sharp distinctions for voters. “Where are we going to fight?” said Rep. Mike Capuano (D-Mass.). “Where is the president going to lead? And are we going to follow?” Pragmatists in the party leadership such as Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee, and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel of New York voted with Hoyer. Liberal leaders, including assistant leader Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and caucus Chairman John Larson of Connecticut, went with Pelosi. So while Tuesday’s vote made plain that Boehner now needs Democratic support to keep the government operating, Democrats still don’t have a position to rally around. Democratic optimists say the break in Republican ranks is a window of opportunity for their party to begin winning the message war and force concessions from the GOP. But it also gives Boehner an opening to work with centrist Democrats to offset Republican defections, freezing out both the Pelosi wing of the Democratic Party and the tea party wing of the GOP. Though they acknowledge a missed opportunity on Tuesday — Democrats say they had no idea so many Republicans would defect — liberals express confidence that a weakened Boehner will now move toward them to finish the year’s spending bills, and that will help unify them around a negotiated position. On the conservative side of their caucus, Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) said he’s ready to vote for a six-month spending bill that finishes off the fiscal year as long as it doesn’t eliminate funding for Head Start and NPR affiliates. Peterson, who often mingles with Republicans on a House balcony, said Boehner’s camp used rank-and-file liaisons to seek conservative Democrats’ support for the short-term bill before Tuesday’s vote. “There’s more of that going on,” Peterson said. That may not bode well for Democratic leaders as they move from the relatively simple task of completing last year’s spending bills to the stickier wickets on the legislative playing field. Some Democrats insist that now is the time to address long-term deficits and debt. The two parties are jockeying for the upper hand when Congress is forced to raise the debt ceiling later this year, and the fight over fiscal 2011 spending is backing up against the fiscal 2012 budget and the ensuing appropriations bills for the year. In separate meetings with Senate and House Democrats in the past week, senior administration officials, including chief of staff Bill Daley, top White House lobbyist Rob Nabors, political adviser David Plouffe and Budget Director Jack Lew, have heard the frustrations of lawmakers who aren’t sure whether the White House even has a position on a long-term spending bill. Adding to the frustration, Senate Democratic sources say the White House told senators at a private Democratic Policy Committee meeting last Thursday that polling shows the public isn’t engaged in the fight over finishing last year’s spending bills. Administration officials say privately that’s an overly simplistic characterization of why they’re approaching the battle over the continuing resolution the way they are. But tension remains. “There are two things you hear time and again: One, where’s the White House? And two, what are we for that we can point to?” said a Senate Democratic source. “Our negotiations and conversations are being treated confidentially on our end, because that is what we have committed to,” White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said. Some Senate Democrats who face reelection in 2012 want the chance to burnish the buckles of tightened belts by voting for more dramatic spending cuts than they have been offered by Senate Democratic leaders. But their leaders are holding fast to the position it is time for House Republicans to make a counteroffer. “Last week, the Senate held two test votes — one on H.R. 1 and one on a Democratic alternative. We knew that neither one would have the votes to pass, but we held the votes anyway; and sure enough, they both went down. The purpose of those votes was to make it clear that both sides’ opening bids in this debate were nonstarters and thus pave the way for a serious, good-faith compromise,” New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, said on the floor Wednesday. “But unfortunately, an intense, ideological tail continues to wag the dog over in the House of Representatives.” Citing a failed Democratic measure that would have funded the government at $10 billion less than current levels, rather than the $61 billion mark House Republicans approved, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois told POLITICO in a brief interview that “we know we have to come off that number.” But he quickly added “to some extent.” But what will please a diffuse Senate Democratic Caucus and appease House Republicans? That remains anyone’s guess. Democratic and Republican aides acknowledge a final bill would likely amount to less than the $61 billion House Republicans seek and exclude some of the more controversial policy preferences of that chamber’s conservatives. For example, a rider eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood is a nonstarter in the Senate — even with some moderate Republicans. But real questions remain: Would politically vulnerable Senate Democrats vote for smaller or larger spending cuts if given the chance? How much are House Democrats willing to sacrifice from federal accounts in order to keep a long-term bill free of controversial social policy riders? The real negotiations are going on between the staffs of Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) said there’s “universal frustration” with the process but he’s confident “we’ll get an agreement” on the 2011 spending. “I think a deadline is probably the best driver.” Now, that deadline is set at April 8.