“Wipeout?”
“Bloodbath?”
“Demo-Katrina” is more like it.
The Times-Picayune’s one word headline the day after that hurricane drowned New Orleans also suits this occasion:
“CATASTROPHIC.”
The national walloping that Republicans suffered Tuesday is almost beyond words. Democrats took the U.S. House, not shockingly, although gaining 42 seats as of Sunday night surely surprised even the loudest Leftist cheerleaders.
Democrats flipped at least seven Senate seats, even in GOP strongholds Kansas, South Carolina, and Texas. Things could devolve from horrible to terrifying, if Democrats’ 54-46 majority expands to 55-45 or 56-44. Too-close-to-call Alaska and/or Mississippi(!) could swing Dem.
For conservative public policy, this ranks somewhere between Hindenburg and Lusitania. Tuesday’s triumphant, Trump-loathing Democrats will torpedo anything that President Donald Trump favors. If he backed a bill to applaud the Law of Gravity, Democrats would take their chances and kill it.
Starting at high noon on Jan. 3, when the 120th Congress convenes, nothing conservative will leave Capitol Hill for two years, maybe more.
At this writing, the GOP will need to flip at least 33 congressional districts in 2028 to regain control. Securing the necessary five to seven senators will be tough, what with Republicans defending 18 seats versus 16 for Democrats.
“The House can change quickly. Not so much the Senate,” former Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said last evening as host of Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Night in America.” “South Carolina elected a Democrat to the Senate for the first time in 28 years. Texas elected a Democrat to the Senate for the first time in 38 years. Kansas elected a Democrat in the Senate for the first time since 1932! If you’re wondering, the 2028 Senate map for Republicans looks dreadful. It will take multiple cycles for Republicans to make up for what happened Tuesday night.”
And if Democrats win the White House in two years, Republicans would have to recruit 67 senators and 290 House members to override any veto by President Kamala Harris, President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or President James Talarico. Not bloody likely.
So, while it retains power, the Republican Congress has until 11:59:59 a.m. on Jan. 3 to transmit free-market, limited government, pro-freedom reforms to Trump for signature.
As they return to Washington today, Republicans must launch the Mother of All Lame-Duck Sessions. It should employ the filibuster-proof Reconciliation 3.0 process—or other necessary means—to enact at least the following:
- The SAVE America Act. Clean federal elections via voter I.D., proof of U.S. citizenship to register, accurate voter rolls, and no more no-excuse mail-in ballots.
- Require that the Census count only U.S. citizens, and never illegal aliens, for allocation of House seats, Electoral College votes, and federal spending.
- Institutionalize DOGE reforms and savings.
- Codify Trump’s executive orders.
- Index capital gains taxes for inflation.
- Slash corporate taxes to 15%.
- Double federal-program fraud penalties.
- Require inspectors general to produce annual fraud reports, with mandatory Justice Department referrals for fraudsters.
- Universal Health Savings Accounts
- Association health plans
- Medical price transparency
- Ban federal funds to parasitic Pharmacy Benefits Managers.
- Defund Planned Parenthood through 2036, when the 10-year budget window closes.
- Ease federal permit applications.
- Speed refinery and pipeline construction.
- Return federal spending to the pre-COVID budget baseline.
When Democrats cry foul, Republicans should remind them that they used reconciliation to pass their blessed Obamacare. What goes around comes around.
Reconciliation 3.0 should extend through this fiscal year: Sept. 30, 2027. If enacted, it could shield truckloads of taxpayer dollars from the Democratic Socialists of America’s Warmth of Collectivism for nine months.
Senate Democrat leader Chuck Schumer of New York similarly handcuffed the incoming GOP House in December 2022. He championed a $1.7 trillion omnibus bill that essentially hid the federal checkbook from freshly elected Republicans for nine months. Schumer cannot credibly complain if the GOP returns the favor.
Vice President JD Vance should occupy his chair as president of the Senate through Jan. 3. This would position Republicans more firmly to challenge any obstructionism by Elizabeth MacDonough, the Democrat-appointed Senate Parliamentarian, if they have the guts to confront her.
Throughout this process, Republicans also need to stop being nice and turning their other cheeks. Congress is not church. Democratic officials are not nice. They are ferocious. Republicans are tail-wagging Yellow Labrador puppies. Democrats are growling Rottweilers.
Incoming House Oversight Chairman Robert Garcia, D-Calif., to Team Trump: “Lawyer up.” Rep. Analilia Mejia, D-N.J., said Wednesday: “We’re going to toss out subpoenas like Mardi Gras beads.”
The ugliness of pro-Democrat activists and allies is infinite.
On Thursday, podcasters Jennifer Welch and Angie Sullivan read this bit of post-election chest thumping: “We’re digging up Charlie Kirk and doing it again.” Rather than ignore or denounce this Internet sewage, these two laughed uncontrollably for 20 seconds.
Revolting.
Welch and Sullivan apologized. But if their blood did not flow at 33º Fahrenheit, they never would have tolerated such Leftist ghoulishness.
Republican niceness will be repaid—and how—when Democrats arrive. They will regard GOP mercy with disdain and make their impeachment votes, committee inquisitions, and neo-Marxist legislation even more rabid. Republicans who play nice today will face junkyard dogs tomorrow.
Step one in turning Reconciliation 3.0 into law is to wave smelling salts beneath the nose of Washington’s nicest, sleepiest Republican, John LINO Thune. Once awakened, this Leader in Name Only might do his job.
The Senate’s top Republican already botched Reconciliation 2.0. Thune correctly used that rare vehicle last April to pay TSA and Border Patrol agents who worked gratis during the Democrats’ 76-day Schumer Shutdown. But Thune quickly stumbled: Rather than pack this filibuster-proof measure with policy priorities, “Noah” Thune sailed away in a nearly empty ark and let scores of conservative ideas drown beside the rising tide.
Thune has flourished … as Senate Cruise Director. While worthy House-passed bills rotted atop his desk, Thune dismissed senators for an 18-day Fourth of July weekend. Then, on Aug. 8, just 16 days after receiving the House’s Reconciliation 3.0 blueprint, Thune sabotaged the Right by ordering an unforgivable five-week Labor Day hiatus. This was parliamentary malpractice, if not actual malice.
If Thune wants to stop humiliating himself, and his conservatism is more than political patent leather, he will collaborate with Speaker Mike Johnson and send the president Reconciliation 3.0, brimming with sorely needed pro-market, limited-government policies.
If not, many years could pass until the Right’s agenda once again has a rendezvous with destiny atop the Resolute Desk.
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