Imagine you are House Leader Paul Ryan or Senator Mitch McConnell. You have a legislative agenda that's already been delayed by the Obamacare repeal failing to pass. Now you're faced with a Debt Ceiling bill that is already receiving pushback from Tea Party block of Congress, who wants spending cuts tied to any federal spending increases, as Politico has reported. It looks to be a long fight and one where Congressional Republicans would succeed if they had a president interested in the legislative process.

Enter the Democrats.

How Democrats Have All The Power

Due to the Tea Party wing of the party, Rep. Paul Ryan needs Democrats votes to help pass a debt ceiling bill. That means they have a lot of negotiating power, just as they did back in March of this year when they helped Republicans pass a short-term spending bill. At the time, President Trump demanded that border wall funding be included in that bill, which threw a wrench into the Republicans ability to negotiate with Democrats, as the New York Times reported.

In the end, Democrats helped pass a bill without any funding for the border wall since the Republicans needed the votes. The passing of the bill pushed the debt ceiling bill to this month. It also gave Democrats more evidence that Republicans didn't know how to govern despite their control of each branch of government, as Reuters noted at the time.

Now that the debt ceiling bill fight is here, Democrats once again showed their muscle. In a meeting today between the president, Republican congressional leaders, and Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, they began negotiations. Both parties came with their separate proposals: Republicans wanted to fund the government past the 2018 Midterm Elections before they tackled the debt ceiling again.

Both parties came with their separate proposals: Republicans wanted to fund the government past the 2018 midterm elections before they tackled the debt ceiling again. Democrats refused to play ball. Republicans lowered it to six months, but that wasn't enough either. Democrats wanted it to be three months and to have Hurricane Harvey relief funding tied into the debt ceiling increase and government funding.

In the end, President Trump sided with Democrats, much to the Republicans' dismay.

The Democrat's Debt Ceiling Deal was the last thing Republicans wanted

With tax reform legislation promising to be a brutal fight all on its own, and the Tea Party wing against any debt ceiling increases, the Republicans were in trouble.

As Vox.com reported, "[Ryan and McConnell] wanted the debt ceiling issue off their plates so they could move on to other issues, like tax reform, which they hoped to pass by the end of the year."

Democrats don't want Republicans to pass tax reform as the GOP wants to pass tax cuts for the rich. By making this deal with President Trump, they skillfully avoided that fight.

As Vox.com writes, "this deal all but ensures the December legislative calendar will be dominated by a painful showdown over the debt ceiling and government funding."

Twitter Has a Field Day

Those in the Twitterverse, naturally, were thrilled by all this.

Conservatives were far less kind toward the President.