I’m afraid that’s exactly what they will be proposing. Trump wants a “one big beautiful reconciliation package.”
Speaker Mike Johnson told Republicans on Saturday that President-elect Donald Trump wants one reconciliation package, instead of the planned two that Republican leadership has been pushing, three people in the room where discussions took place told POLITICO.
Johnson’s message came as Republicans are meeting behind closed doors at Fort McNair to map out their strategy for passing a sweeping border, tax and energy package that will be the heart of their legislative agenda. Trump told Johnson that he wants “one big beautiful bill,” the Louisiana Republican recounted at the retreat, per three lawmakers.
Trump’s decision is a break from Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s pitch for a two-bill strategy that would have seen Republicans pass a border and energy bill first followed by a tax bill. Johnson had also previously indicated there would be two bills — though that was viewed as more of a deference to Trump’s perceived preference and a way to notch quick wins for his agenda. Thune stopped by the House GOP retreat on Saturday, a person familiar confirmed to POLITICO.
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Every step of the process will require near unity among congressional Republicans, who are currently working with only a one-vote margin in the House.
“We can’t lose anyone,” Smith said in a brief interview after the GOP retreat.
Easy Peasy. All they have to do is agree to take a wrecking ball to all government spending, including mandatory spending like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, to please the Chip Roy, Thomas Massie extremists and make sure that none of the others object and it will all work out just fine.
There are some naysayers who see the writing on the wall:
“[The tax bill] can’t be the first order of business. It took us months to do the first tax cuts bill nine years ago. The bottom line is that, if that’s what the president wants, he’s going to have to wait until the summer for it all to get ironed out,” Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) told Fox News’ Fox News Live on Saturday.
It also throws a curveball into the House-leadership-struck agreement to raise the debt ceiling under reconciliation. House GOP leadership told members as part of last year’s government funding negotiations that they would raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion as part of the first reconciliation package and cut $2.5 trillion in spending as part of the reconciliation process.
They’re all girding themselves for the battle. For the moment they’re saying they’ll defer to Dear Leader: “No one is fighting it. If that’s the Trump call, that’s the play we will execute.”
Well maybe. President Musk will have something to say about all this. And executing Trump’s plans is always easier said than done.