Washington Update From a DC Insider - December, 2024

[Mike McKenna is a long-time analyst/advisor/polling professional in Washington, DC. Also a former Trump staffer, he currently writes op/eds for the Washington Times. He sends out comprehensive state-of-play reports to a select email distribution, and allows me to share them with paid subscribers here. This is his report for December, 2024.]

From: Michael McKenna

Date: December 23, 2024

Re: December 2024 monthly note

It’s been a busy few weeks since the election, and Christmas is coming, so I will keep this as short as possible. Thank you for reading, and please don’t hesitate to contact me with thoughts, comments, or questions.

The Recent Unpleasantness

Let me start by offering a few thoughts about the mess that was last week. I am happy to admit that the world would have been a better place had Speaker Johnson simply put a clean continuing resolution and disaster relief legislation through the Committee on Rules and then on the floor and let Members vote guided by what remains of their consciences. Had he done that however, we would not have learned a bunch of different things about what the world is likely to look like over the next 24 months.

As predicted in these notes and elsewhere, we learned that those who think that reconciliation (no matter how many steps) will be tidy and quick are delusional. Reconciliations are almost always messy and lengthy and complicated for a bunch of different reasons. In 2025, reconciliation will be difficult to land because one or two House Members are going to be able to hold the entire process hostage.