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Upon ending his trip to the Middle East and immediately unburdening himself of dismissive opinions on Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen, Donald Trump issued abrupt and unambiguous instructions to House Republicans via Truth Social:
Republicans MUST UNITE behind, “THE ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL!” Not only does it cut Taxes for ALL Americans, but it will kick millions of Illegal Aliens off of Medicaid to PROTECT it for those who are the ones in real need. The Country will suffer greatly without this Legislation, with their Taxes going up 65%. It will be blamed on the Democrats, but that doesn’t help our Voters. We don’t need “GRANDSTANDERS” in the Republican Party. STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE! It is time to fix the MESS that Biden and the Democrats gave us. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
But one group of “grandstanders” disobeyed Trump very conspicuously: On Friday, four House Freedom Caucus hard-liners blocked the Budget Committee from formally assembling the “big, beautiful bill” and sending it to the House floor, on the grounds that it didn’t cut enough domestic spending. The Wall Street Journal has more details:
House Republican spending hawks are demanding changes to the party’s tax-and-spending bill, freezing progress on the legislation over disagreements on Medicaid, clean-energy tax breaks and budget deficits.
The holdouts Friday, including Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma and Andrew Clyde of Georgia, blocked the Budget Committee from advancing the legislation.
“This bill falls profoundly short,” Roy said, adding that discussions were continuing and possible through the weekend. “I am a no on this bill unless serious reforms are made.”
Roy and others want Medicaid work requirements to start sooner than 2029, as the current bill does. They want faster removal of clean-energy tax credits, which the current bill phases out over several years. They warn that the bill, as written, front-loads tax cuts in the next few years and delays spending cuts. That combination, they argue, means that budget deficits could be significantly higher in the short run.
Throughout the entire 2025 budget process, “spending hawks” have been complaining that the GOP leadership cannot be trusted to prioritize spending cuts and deficit reduction as they negotiate the budget-reconciliation bill. They have the leverage to at least temporarily block the bill both in the Budget Committee and on the floor, where Republicans can only afford to lose three votes. But the same goes for various other House Republicans, particularly the marginal-district members who are wary of Medicaid cuts and also want concessions on taxes, like the SALT deduction. And obviously, Senate Republicans, who have an entirely different framework for putting together their version of the reconciliation bill, have some leverage as well.
What Roy, Norman, Brecheen, Clyde, and other members of the House Freedom Caucus really want is to extort an ironclad promise from Speaker Mike Johnson and ultimately Donald Trump that “moderates” in the House or Senate won’t get their way when push comes to shove. It looks like they’ll have a couple of days to make their threats credible, and also to establish certain “red-line” positions they’re willing to go to the mats to defend. Budget Committee chairman Jodey Arrington has announced a new vote on Sunday at 10 p.m. (which is unusual, to say the least).
It’s all pretty embarrassing, as Politico observes:
House Republicans fumed over the massive stumble Friday. Some GOP members questioned why House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) plowed ahead with the vote while the negotiations with hard-liners continued. In the end, the very public failed vote accomplished nothing but made everyone look bad: the hard-liners, the president and House GOP leadership, according to GOP members and senior Republican aides.
“What the fuck are we doing?” one House Republican remarked, granted anonymity to speak candidly.
We’ve heard this sort of alarmist caterwauling before, along with anonymous claims that Johnson can’t find his own butt with both hands. But somehow or other, when push comes to shove, the Mr. Magoo from Louisiana always manages to fall forward, and it’s quite unlikely that any of the GOP factions will actually deep-six a bill that includes nearly all of Donald Trump’s entire legislative agenda. The Freedom Caucus rebellion is probably best understood as an effort by the far right of the House GOP to get ahead of others in the line to make demands.
To use Trump’s language, there have been plenty of Republican “grandstanders” in this process. It may wind up as a game of musical chairs where the outcome will be determined by who is in the best position when Trump orders the music to stop. No matter who wins, among the losers, unfortunately, will be a lot of deserving people and causes.
