A "carrot" is a "usually tapering, elongate, fleshy orange root of this plant, eaten as a vegetable" *.
So I deduce the use of the word here is simile.
Such grammatical forms are intrinsically vague, apparently deliberately so in this case.
I thought "regulations" were the purview of congress. So by what dint of plausibility would the president elect "dangle" such "carrot"?
fyi for congress to modify such regulations would require cooperation and coordination of both houses of congress.
And while the LEADERS of both houses are Republican, our senate currently requires a "super-majority" that's 60%.
And while the GOP does control a simple majority, it lacks the super-majority that would be necessary for such "carrots".
AND!!
Majority Leader McConnell (R-KY) is the one that negotiated Senator Reid out of exercising "the nuclear option".
And it is precisely that "nuclear option" the GOP would have to exercise in the senate to overrule conservative Democrat opposition.
* Excerpted from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version licensed from INSO Corporation; further reproduction and distribution in accordance with the Copyright Law of the United States. All rights reserved.
