Trump and Democrats "deals"

Question

My question is about the legislative process. Recently Trump and the Democrats worked out a "deal" on the debt ceiling and aid for Hurricane Harvey victims. And, this deal passed Congress despite Republican leadership opposition. Now there is talk of another Trump - Democrat "deal" regarding DACA and border security (the to be or not to be "wall").

How does this work when the Republicans have majorities in both houses of Congress and also (I believe) control the agenda (decide which bills will come up for a vote and which will not)? Have the Democrats (and Trump) formed a coalition with moderate Republicans (if such an animal even exists any more)? Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of our leaders compromising to get things done. It's just that I am missing something in all this. I thought I had a good understanding of the legislative process. But I don't understand how the President is making "deals" with the minority party to pass legislation.

Answer 1

Aid for Harvey victims was a must pass legislation. It was going to pass in some form regardless. While in theory, Republicans could have blocked it in the House of Representatives, in practice, they had to vote on something. And if they allowed any amendments at all, Democrats were going to push for the deal that Donald Trump made.

It's unclear if a replacement for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) replacement has the same logic. Democrats and Trump have announced a deal. But it is less immediate. No one will starve to death if DACA isn't replaced tomorrow. So Republicans can amend a possible deal if they want to do so.

In other words, Democrats and Trump can announce as many deals as they want. They still can't pass them without at least implicit support from the Republican leadership. They had that implicit support on Harvey, as it was emergency legislation. It's unclear if they have it on DACA or not. We'll have to wait and see how it goes.

Answer 2

The way these "deals" work is that a certain amount of congresspeople from majority party vote for the deal (FiveThirtyEight typically calls them "Collins wing of Republican Party" - basically, more liberal/moderate Republicans, often elected from less-red states). Enough to get a majority of votes (as there is no need to override a veto on a bill the President supports, Congress only needs pure majority, not 2/3 of votes; though Senate would need filibuster-proof one on any bills that are subject to filibuster).

Answer 3

Basically the Republican party is not actually a unified party. There are different factions with different ideologies, and they do not always, or even often, vote together. The Tea Party Republicans and other far right politicians will not vote for more moderate bills, while more moderate Republicans will not vote for more far right bills. In this case it is easier to get a majority through working with Democrats and moderate Republicans than through trying to unify the party, and work with the Tea Party. (The Tea Party is essentially unwilling to compromise at all.)

Answer 4

I believe the assumption is that, since he's the leader of the Republican Party, they are not going to lock-step oppose their own guy, so he gets a certain number of Republicans on board.

The reason why there is an assumption that the Republicans won't vote against Trump in unanimous lockstep, like they did as a matter of policy with Obama, is if the Congressional Republicans basically declare war on their own party leader, no one but the Dems can win (given their track record, that's not a given, either), short or long term. They will be viewed as an incompetent party, in complete disarray and will be viewed as a party that demonstrated there is no reason to put them in majorities because they can't get anything done when they have all the needed levers of power to do whatever they want.

Trump probably believes they'll try to avoid sending the impression that they can't govern, as a majority party, and will have at least some members voting with him, with the leadership then falling in line to make it look like they were involved in making the results happen.