Oh look. The Freedom Caucus is rebelling:
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. The panel blocked the bill on a 16-21 vote, with those four Republicans and Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R., Pa.) joining all Democrats in opposition. Smucker, who backs the bill, said he voted no for procedural reasons, so he can call for a revote later.
Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R., Texas) said lawmakers could go home for the weekend and that the panel hoped to resume Monday morning.
“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.
Republican leaders are negotiating with them and simultaneously with lawmakers from New York, New Jersey and California, who want a higher cap on the state and local tax deduction. The current bill would raise the $10,000 cap to $30,000 and start phasing that down once income reaches $400,000, but Reps. Mike Lawler (R., N.Y.) and Nick LaLota (R., N.Y.) say that isn’t enough in their high-tax, high-income districts.
Other lawmakers, including Rep. Jen Kiggans (R., Va.) have warned that the clean-energy tax-credit changes were too harsh, creating a push-and-pull within the party where changes that satisfy the hard-line conservatives could potentially cost votes on the other side of the party.
How shocking. They only do this every single time.
Somebody’s unhappy:
These guys have different incentives. The Freedom Caucus guys are afraid they’re going to lose their chance to decimate the government before 2026 when they very well may lose the House (and possibly the Senate.) The ones who are in danger of losing their seats would like to hang on to them so they don’t want this. And as I wrote earlier, it’s been reported that Trump is very worried about the Democrats taking the House and investigating him and impeaching him a third time for all of his ongoing crimes. (Why he might even face criminal prosecution if they get him for some of the crimes that are clearly not part of his “official duties” like all the bribes and graft from his crypto schemes.)
So let the games begin. I still think there’s a very good chance they pass nothing and simply extend the existing tax cuts and do another CR through 2026.