Trump scramble to rack up accomplishments gives conservatives heartburn

President Trump’s race to rack up accomplishments heading into an election year is giving conservatives heartburn, with some worried he is striking deals that include giveaways to Democrats. Several Senate Republicans this week vented their frustration with Trump’s trade deal with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) during meetings with the administration’s top trade official, Robert Lighthizer. There’s also grumbling among conservative lawmakers over an agreement to expand benefits for federal workers in exchange for a costly Space Force military branch and a spending deal that is projected to add nearly $2 trillion to the deficit. The year-end deal-making isn’t necessarily over. Negotiators are circling around a tax deal that would include an extension of earned income tax credits for low-income families who don’t pay federal taxes, a benefit typically unpopular with conservatives. "The deals are horrible. They’re bad deals,” said Brian Darling, a GOP strategist and former Senate aide. “This always happens at the end of a Congress. It’s typical of what’s happened in Congress over the years, where they wait until the end of the year, cut big deals on must-pass bills like the National Defense Authorization Act. Everything gets loaded into these bills, and nobody likes them.” One Republican senator said he and other GOP lawmakers are unsettled by Trump’s eagerness to cut deals with Democrats in recent weeks and make big concessions in order to avoid entering an election year without a solid list of legislative accomplishments. A second Republican senator said Trump is transforming a party that over the last three years has become more associated with the president than the pro-free trade and fiscally conservative principles that defined the GOP since the Reagan years...Senate Republicans asked Lighthizer at a meeting on Thursday why the administration didn’t submit the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal to Congress for approval at the end of 2018, when Republicans still controlled the House. The U.S. trade representative explained the paperwork wasn’t ready, but his answer didn’t satisfy the critics. GOP lawmakers were frustrated that Trump’s trade team cut them out of the final negotiations, leaving them with a take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum on final passage. Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said, “Our members are concerned that it’s moved significantly to the left during the negotiation process.”...MORE