CONGRESS/DEMS/ELECTION/NAFTA/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “If Democrats are successful in November in taking at least a slim majority in the House of Representatives, as most current polls predict, the new NAFTA agreement reached on Sunday night will face an uphill battle to becoming law. A completed three-way deal won’t necessarily be dead on arrival in a Democratic-controlled Congress — but it won’t be a foregone conclusion that lawmakers would pass the agreement, either. Because of several procedural steps that must be followed, a floor vote is not expected until the next Congress is sworn in. That sets the stage for a nail-biting 2019, with the prospect of a protracted showdown between the White House and Capitol Hill…A flat-out rejection by either chamber would rob President Donald Trump — at least for awhile — of what he would like to be a signature trade-policy accomplishment. A tense back-and-forth would also leave Mexican and Canadian government officials watching nervously on the sidelines, fearing that Trump may carry through on his ultimate threat: to cancel the old NAFTA as a pressure tactic, in his battle against Congress. It’s not outside the realm of possibility. Newly powerful Democrats who despise the president, and who would be loath to hand anything even closely resembling a policy victory to the White House, could simply choose to reject anything that comes their way.”
–Megan Cassella, “How a Democratic Congress could derail Trump’s NAFTA dreams,” Politico, October 1, 2018 1:04 pm