| Today, let's talk about former president Donald Trump and the hold he has on the Republican Party. Hours after rioters smashed their way into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 to stop Congress from counting the electoral college votes in the 2020 presidential race, a majority of House Republicans voted against affirming some of those results. A week later, a majority of Republican lawmakers voted against impeaching Trump on the charge that he incited the attack on the Capitol.  Trump supporters on Jan. 6. | In the months that followed, the Republican National Committee held part of its spring meeting at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, which he headlined. Republican lawmakers opposed the establishment of a committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack, and they ousted Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from leadership for supporting such an investigation and Trump's impeachment. Republicans also have been playing down the attack and the president's role in it — the most recent figure to do so is the guy some insurrectionists wanted to hang, former vice president Mike Pence. Nearly a year after Joe Biden's election victory, a notable number of lawmakers are still sidestepping questions about whether Biden was legitimately elected. Rep. Steve Scalise (La.), the House's No. 2 Republican, wouldn't acknowledge Sunday that Biden was legitimately elected, when pressed repeatedly by Fox News's Chris Wallace. Lots of other players in the Republican Party seem as though they want to run for president — Pence, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, Nikki Haley, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Sens. Ted Cruz (Tex.) and Josh Hawley (Mo.) — but few are making big moves until Trump himself decides. As Trump's potential 2024 presidential run becomes more real (he was met with adoring crowds and politicians during a trip to Iowa on Saturday), it's tempting to conclude that he has regained his hold on the Republican Party. But it's probably more accurate to say that his grip never weakened. GOP politicians are reading the signs — literally  A "Trump 2024" flag in West Virginia. (Kristian Thacker for The Washington Post) | Most Senate Republicans privately don't want Trump to run. But being a successful party leader requires the ability to appeal to voters in California as well as in Iowa. Trump still does that, at least for the hardcore Republican voters who make their voices heard in off-year or midterm elections. A September CNN poll found 63 percent of Republicans want Trump to be the leader of their party, though fewer were sure he'd win in 2024. A talk radio host modeled after Trump led on the right in this summer's recall effort against California governor. (Democrat Gavin Newsom ended up easily keeping his seat after some concerns that he might lose to a Trumpian Republican.) Now Republicans like Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who is up for reelection next year, are embracing Trump despite past reservations. A Trump aide in Iowa talking to Politico underscores why: "Every farm across the state, if you're to travel on any rural highway, it's Trump Country. The polls show it. The people show it. The action shows it. They are coming out of the woodwork for Trump." Democrats' $3.5 trillion dilemma: To go shallow and wide or deep and narrow? It's official; Democrats' big social safety net/climate change bill will be less than the $3.5 trillion in spending that Biden wants, so it can get the votes from centrist Democrats in the Senate that it needs. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reluctantly said as much today. "If there are fewer dollars that need to be spent, there are choices that need to be made," she said. Democrats have two options to do that. - Fully fund fewer new things. This is the deep and narrow option. The problem for Democrats — and what liberals have been saying to the likes of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) for months now — is: What do you cut? The headliners of this bill are some of the most expensive to set up: universal prekindergarten, free community college tuition, dramatically expanded Medicare. "The whole shrinking of the pie pits Medicare recipients against poor families against home-care workers against victims of climate change," Sen. Bernie Sanders's former campaign manager told The Post's Jeff Stein recently.
- Fund their wish list entirely, but only for a few years. This is the shallow and wide option. It would let Democrats deliver on more of their campaign promises, but it would run the risk that these programs are pulled out from under Americans in a few years when there's a Republican Congress. Democrats in favor of this option are daring Republicans to do that, hoping they won't.
To get this bill done, the Democratic Party must decide which option has the maximum impact and is the least politically dangerous for it. | 
Email 
