Dem
51
GOP
49
Another consequence of a Congress that cannot get anything done is a whole bunch of show votes. Last week, we saw the House do it with the criminal referral of AG Merrick Garland to the Department of Justice, and we saw the Senate do it with the IVF bill.
This week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will cue up another show vote, this one on a bump-stock ban. We suppose it's at least possible that the legislation could pass the Senate, since the original ban was adopted by the Trump White House, and since in last week's bump-stock ruling, the Supreme Court basically told Congress "this is your job, not the president's." But we seriously doubt it will pass. And even if the bill does get through the Senate, it won't pass the House, or even come up for a vote there. So, the only result will be to give the Democrats a talking point about which party is trying to curtail gun violence and which party is not.
There may also be a second show vote this week that, oddly, goes the other way. The House has already passed a tax bill that would re-institute the child tax credit that expired last year. Vulnerable Senate Democrats, including Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Jon Tester (D-MT) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV), would very much like to hold a vote in their chamber, so they can tell voters about how much they support the idea. However, it appears that there are enough Republicans in the Senate who oppose the measure that it will end up in filibuster purgatory (filibusgatory?).
As with the bump-stock bill, it's at least possible this one will pass the Senate. But probably not, especially since Senate Republicans are under orders from Donald Trump not to give Joe Biden any "wins." That means that the calculation for Schumer is likely to be based on how many show votes he wants to hold. On one hand, they are a useful way of getting the Republicans on record on the unpopular side of hot-button issues. On the other hand, if you go to the well too often, you also end up highlighting that the Democrats aren't getting much done. Even if there is a good reason for that (the filibuster, the Republican majority in the House), it could nonetheless put voters in a "throw the bums out" frame of mind. (Z)