Democrats announce entire immediate legislative agenda: Damage 2016 GOP candidates

The Democrats have a line they love to use. "The Republicans place political one-upsmanship above doing the work of the people." They've said this, in a variety of permutations, thousands of times over the last 6 years. It's become sort of a catchphrase for them - one they trot out whenever the GOP actually tries to stand up to our rogue President.

Now that they're not in charge, however, it looks like it's become the Democrat Party's official game plan. They've announced, in no uncertain terms, that while their legislative agenda going forward will have no legal implications, it will serve to damage the GOP's 2016 presidential candidates. As the Washington Post reports, they're about to introduce a batch of Amendments that they'll tack on to the annual budget resolution. All of them will be designed to injure their opponents’ political fortunes.

The basic idea is to force the GOP White House hopefuls to choose between appeals to the conservative primary electorate and more moderate general-election voters. The votes will come on the yearly budget resolution, which sets spending levels for the next fiscal year but also allows nearly unlimited amendments on most any subject. Many of the amendments are expected to come during a marathon Thursday session known as “vote-o-rama” that could last into the wee hours of Friday morning.

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Democrats say a handful of amendments will put Republicans in a difficult position in which they will sacrifice something no matter what they choose. The Democratic strategy: Tack right in the votes, and we’ll go after you in the general election. Move left, and your competitors will eat you alive in the primary. “We want to make certain the budget is an opportunity to say which side are you on,” Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters last week. In other words, "We're going to introduce a bunch of wedge issues that will hurt you no matter what you do - while having no actual legislative value whatsoever." The reason they'll have no actual value is simple.

These budget amendments, coming on a special piece of legislation that does not go to the president for his signature, cannot become law, but they do force lawmakers to go on the record on controversial issues. When Republicans were in the Senate minority, they similarly sought to use budget amendments to make Democrats uncomfortable.

It's true that the GOP has, in the past, made similar moves. However, they're not the ones who spent the last 6 years accusing Republicans of "playing politics" only to turn around and proclaim - proudly - that they're about to do exactly that. ....Nor do they control the vast majority of the press, which will be eager to aid the Democrats in their scheme. Most importantly, this gambit doesn't really work on Democrat voters, since they've proven there is virtually no vote they aren't willing to forgive - as long the Congressman who cast it has a "D" after their name. Republican voters, on the other hand, actually care about ridiculous things like "the Constitution" and "good legislation," so they don't enjoy the same immunity. In short, it looks like the Democrats' latest scheme is simply a cheap canard designed to generate "blame" and create electoral opportunity. Feel free to chalk up the "politics before business" accusation as the latest in a long, long, line of left-wing hypocrisies.