Voices: What Washington wants for the holidays

‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through the halls, appropriators were working on an omnibus without any stalls. Democrats and Republicans will likely pass a continuing resolution on Friday to keep the government open to buy everyone more time to hash out an omnibus spending bill.

Afterward, Washington will likely break for the Christmas holidays and then be done for the rest of the year. With this in mind, here is what we think each of the most influential people in Washington would want most for the holidays (and we’re pretty sure Joe Manchin doesn’t need another lump of coal given he’s in West Virginia).

Joe Biden: Lower interest rates. Compared to last year, the president has had a relatively lucky year. While his approval ratings are still low, they are improving. Earlier this week, he got good news when the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that inflation only increased by 0.1 per cent and only by 7.1 per cent in the past 12 months. That’s welcome news, especially as many voters even in the last midterm saw inflation as a major problem.

At the same time, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell announced that the Federal Open Market Committee would raise interest rates by half a percentage point to make its benchmark range the highest in 15 years. That’s his seventh rate increase. Mr Biden is still weighing whether to stage another run for the White House, but he would likely need lower interest rates to calm markets to have any hope of another term.

Kevin McCarthy: 218 votes. House Republicans got what they wanted from Santa last month when they won back the majority, just. But all that House Minority Kevin McCarthy wants for Christmas is a speaker’s gavel – and so far, he doesn’t have it.

Melanie Zanona at CNN reported that members of the moderate Republican Governance Group have been rocking buttons readiong “OK”, or “Only Kevin.” But the slogan feels more akin to Jeb Bush’s forced “JEB!” exclamation than a signal of meaningful support for Mr McCarthy. For him to nail down a victory in January, he’ll need to generate legitimate excitement.

Chuck Schumer: A competent campaign chairman. Senate Democrats did the impossible this last election cycle when they not only defended every incumbent senator facing a tough re-election fight, but they actually flipped a Senate seat in Pennsylvania. But they will need an outright Chanukah miracle this go-around, with a competitive Senate seat for every candle on the Menorah.

First, they have to defend Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jon Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, all of whom represent states Donald Trump won. Then there are the three Democratic senators in states that Mr Trump won in 2016 but lost in 2020: Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. Jacky Rosen will be up for re-election in swing-state Nevada, and the party still has to figure out whether to defend newly-independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, the chairman who oversaw this last cycle, has said he is not interested in taking the job again – who could blame him? – which means Democrats will need someone else to step up.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle…

Mitch McConnell: Decent Republican candidates. If Senate Democrats want a campaign chairman who can lead them through their toughest cycle yet, Mr McConnell wants candidates who can appeal to swing and former Republican voters.

Earlier this week, the man known as the Grim Reaper gave a withering assessment of the 2022 cycle. “We ended up having a candidate quality test,” he said, something that’s hard to dispute after all of the challengers to incumbent Democrats – to say nothing of Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania’s open-seat race – repelled voters to a shocking degree. Mr McConnell put the blame squarely on former president Donald Trump for endorsing unelectable candidates: “Our ability to control the primary outcome was quite limited in ‘22,” he said, “because the support of the former president proved to be very decisive in these primaries.”

And that brings us to…

Donald Trump: A New Year rebound. The former president took the fall for Republicans’ poor showing in the 2022 midterm, partially because of the fact he endorsed so many clunker candidates. Since then, his announcement of a third White House run has received little fanfare. Polls show Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has started to eclipse the former president, and this week has seen him make the bizarre “major announcement” that he is releasing a new line of digital trading cards.

The former president has recovered from setbacks innumerable times – he went from inciting a deadly riot to having all but a handful of Republicans defend him during impeachment proceedings. But if he is to succeed, things will need to change.