The Republicans in Congress actually had a pretty great week

Republicans have good reason for optimism this Valentine’s Day. A week that began without even a single budget proposal ended with three — and a good chance of intraparty compromise in the House. The third budget proposal was in the U.S. Senate, which Thursday received word that another battleground Democrat is retiring — thereby increasing the Grand Old Party’s chances to make gains in the midterms. And that’s not even counting nominations, which continue apace.

But first: the budget bill. When the sun rose Monday, there was nothing but talk. The first stab Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) had taken after the GOP’s Miami conference didn’t come close to satisfying anyone, and now leadership, committee chairs, and the rank and file were stalled, sitting on their hands and looking around the room to see who would move first.

Republicans’ advantage just grew — a good sign for the final two years of Trump’s presidency and an excellent addition to Republicans’ already darn decent week.

Then Monday afternoon, the conservative House Freedom Caucus surprised D.C. with a budget proposal (Blaze News’ own Rebeka Zeljko broke the news), and suddenly the Hill was aflutter with activity.

Johnson wasted no time telling reporters his own proposal was right around the corner, and by Wednesday morning, poof: two budgets, where days earlier there had been none. And what's more: Conservative Republicans had negotiated spending cuts up to $2 trillion or more, even while making family tax cuts permanent.

By Thursday afternoon, Hill Republicans were positively chipper. One big, beautiful bill, with permanent tax cuts included.

The impact of the agreement was quickly seen in the upper chamber, where Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) had gotten sick of waiting for the House and had started his own budget process (even though the Constitution requires that budgets originate in the House). He’d pushed tax concerns aside, saying they were too complicated and that the budget cuts necessary to balance out individual tax cuts would bog down progress.

As negotiations over in the House turned positive, Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) joined Majority Leader John Thune (S.D.) in writing a letter demanding that the party make the tax cuts permanent. Cooperation breeds cooperation, and courage breeds courage, it seems.

Are Republicans on easy street? Of course not. Staffers laughed out loud when I asked them. Plenty of opportunities exist to screw things up. However, more optimism exists now than at any point in recent weeks. “Getting everybody on board at the same time was the important thing,” a senior Republican committee staffer familiar with the weeks of negotiations told the Beltway Brief.

Speaking of the Senate, one Tina Smith (D-Minn.) announced that she won’t be running for re-election next year. She was theoretically among the 100 most powerful people on the planet, but you’ve probably never heard of her. Why? Because she’s one of the many U.S. senators (of both parties) who never do a thing. They show up, they have the party letters next to their names, they collect paychecks, and then they go home.

Of course, when they finally die in office (or, in some cases, retire), the accolades are wonderful. Particularly for Democrats. It's easy to guess their parting compliments. “She put country over party.”

“She reached across the aisle to find common-sense solutions.”

“She built bridges and found new ways to innovate for the American people.”

A more accurate read is “she replaced that comedian, Al Franken, actually won election after that (pretty darn easy when you’re an incumbent in a winning year), and then she retired.” But to our point, the best read of this retirement is: Democrats could have hoped for an easy win, and now they’re going to get stuck pouring cash into an open race in Minnesota.

Minnesota sure ain’t red (and hometown Gov. Tim Walz is thinking about throwing his hat into the race), but in a non-presidential year, it’s still only estimated as D+1. That means Democrats are going to have to spend big money there. Democrats are already stuck defending Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), having to pour money into New Hampshire to protect incumbent Jeanne Shaheen, and then fighting it out over an empty seat (by Democrat retirement) in toss-up Michigan.

All that means Republicans’ advantage just grew — a good sign for the final two years of President Donald Trump’s presidency and an excellent addition to Republicans’ already darn decent week.

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Editor's Note: This article initially listed Michigan as a Republican retirement. It is a Democrat retirement.

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