Why Republicans Seem Happy to Skip August Recess This Year

Congressional Republicans do not seem too unhappy that there may not be an August recess this year.

Whether working on the Obamacare “repeal and replace” bills, or ambitious tax reforms, Republicans are only too glad to be skipping the annual trek back to their districts. And work provides the perfect excuse.

That is because Republicans know what is waiting for them back home: the organized, often well-funded shock troops of the so-called “Resistance,” pouring into their town hall meetings, often from other districts. The whole strategy of “Indivisible” and groups like it depends on confronting Republican legislators in public forums, and providing them to say or do embarrassing things that the mainstream media will be eager to report. So they are executing a tactical retreat. They would rather sweat in the unbearable Washington, D.C. heat and humidity than sweat on YouTube and on national TV.

Memories of 2009, no doubt, linger in the GOP ranks. That was when Democrats sent their members home to defend the first draft of Obamacare, which few of them had read and none of them could explain. Constituents flooded town hall meetings with questions — how will I keep my insurance? why is the IRS enforcing this? will illegal aliens be eligible? — and Tea Party groups often demonstrated their disapproval outside the meetings. That was the first sign of the wave election to come, and the strong opposition that lasted throughout the Obama years.

That is why Republicans do not seem too perturbed at the thought of the Senate health care bill failing to pass before July 4th. They would only be too happy to hammer out the details in August — just this once, anyway. It would give them a perfect excuse to cancel their town hall meetings and deny the “Resistance” its battlefield.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.