Members of Congress from Republican-controlled states may be about to pay a hefty political price due to one particular element of the government shutdown, according to a longtime conservative.
During a Monday segment on MSNBC's "Deadline: White House," David Frum — who was a speechwriter in former President George W. Bush's administration — said Republicans' shutdown gamble is unlikely to pay off. He predicted there would be an "exit ramp" for the GOP in the form of agreeing to a deal on extending expiring Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits, but that a bigger problem was still looming: Trump challenging Congress' power of the purse under Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.
"The Constitutionawards Congress power overtaxing and spending. And Donald Trump has challengedthat power in a veryfundamental way," Frum said. "He is taxing,without Congress, thirty-plusbillion dollars a month intariff revenue, and he isspending without Congress. Heis getting other forms ofrevenue than taxes."
"The reason the White Houseballroom story is so important: It's not just the vandalism ofan historical monument. It'snot just the gaudy, bad tasteof this ballroom. It's that itis being funded not by taxes,but by gifts from people whohave business before thegovernment," he continued. "So he's bypassing Congress as a source of revenue,and he's bypassing Congress'control of spending, and he'sclaiming the authority torefuse to spend money that Congress has appropriated andthat he signed. So how do youdo business with someone likethat?"
Frum also pointed out that with funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) expiring on Saturday for 42 million Americans, many Republicans may already be feeling pressure from constituents to make a deal with Democrats. He pointed out that many residents of reliably red states are dependent on food stamps.
"There's a lot of poverty andhunger in poor, white rural America," Frum said. "There are a lot ofpeople on food stamps in poorwhite rural America that Ithink a lot of the people in Trump's gaudy circle assume that they can use foodstamps and other things tosqueeze the Democrats, becausethe Democrats are the 'poorpeople's party.' But that is notexactly true anymore."
"Oneof Donald Trump's achievementswas to change the class basisof American politics. There area lot more educated andaffluent people in the Democratic coalition. There area lot more poor and ruralpeople in the Republicancoalition," he added. "... If you'replanning on running up theelectoral score in North Carolina, for example, many ofthe people in the Republicans are counting on to make their gerrymander in North Carolina work, may be on food stamps."
Watch the segment below: