PoliticusUSA is ad-free and never bending the knee, so please support our work by becoming a subscriber.
Trump thought that he could go to Capitol Hill and bark out orders to House Republicans and make everyone get into line to support his big beautiful bill, but it hasn’t worked out that way.
Instead, Mike Johnson had to cut a deal with blue state Republicans to quadruple the state and local tax deduction, but now the far right conservatives are grumbling about wanting more cuts in the bill.
Punchbowl News reported:
There have been major changes to the bill in the last 24 hours. The most significant is the overhaul to the state-and-local tax deduction provision approved by the Ways and Means Committee.
…
We’re already hearing an argument from the House Freedom Caucus that Johnson should delay a vote on the package. Conservatives argue that Johnson is seeking to meet an arbitrary deadline – Memorial Day. Some have begun to say that the GOP leadership should revert to two bills, an idea that the House and Senate Republicans leaders nixed months ago.
Johnson will most likely start out with two no votes on the floor: Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). Depending on attendance, he’ll have one or two more to spare.
If Trump thought that he could show up and make House Republicans do whatever he wanted, he was wrong.
Even if Mike Johnson manages to sneak this bill through the House, it will not be the sort of resounding victory that Trump was expecting.
Senate Republicans are going to tear apart the House bill and rewrite it. The Senate will pass its own version, and then the House and Senate will have to agree on a final bill that will need to clear Congress.
