{"id":10964,"date":"2025-05-08T18:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T10:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=10964"},"modified":"2025-05-08T18:47:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T10:47:16","slug":"gop-senators-hope-to-avoid-trump-agenda-becoming-a-trainwreck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=10964","title":{"rendered":"GOP senators hope to avoid Trump agenda becoming a \u2018trainwreck\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Republicans are looking to regroup on President Trump\u2019s agenda, which one GOP lawmaker says is becoming a \u201ctrainwreck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate Republicans met at the Library of Congress Wednesday to plot a path forward on the stalled budget reconciliation bill, amid growing tensions between conservatives, who want to make deep cuts to government spending, and moderates, who worry about the impact on Medicaid and other federal benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaker Mike Johnson\u2019s (R-La.) goal of getting \u201cone big, beautiful bill\u201d to Trump\u2019s desk by Memorial Day won\u2019t be met and now there\u2019s a danger that negotiations of the tax bill will slip past July 4, the target date set last week by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are keeping very close tabs on it,\u201d said a Republican senator of the negotiations in the House, who said the two chambers are heading in separate directions, with little direct negotiation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSooner or later we have to pass the same thing and I\u2019m worried that this is potentially a trainwreck. We can\u2019t really get on the same page,\u201d the lawmaker warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hill’s Headlines | PM – May 7, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Senate Republican aide pushed back on the senator\u2019s concern that the Trump\u2019s agenda is at risk of derailing, arguing that negotiations over big, complex bills naturally have \u201cpeaks and valleys.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told The Hill that Republican senators made progress at their retreat Wednesday, downplaying the simmering tensions in his conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe had a really good, I thought, very constructive conversation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans in both chambers remain deeply divided over how much to cut spending to offset the cost of extending Trump\u2019s 2017 tax cuts, enacting new tax relief, securing the border and boosting the Pentagon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A person familiar with the discussion at Wednesday\u2019s retreat said that Thune expressed frustration with the pace of the negotiations in the House and the lack of progress on finding deficit-reduction measures that could muster the 218 votes needed to pass the lower chamber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thune argued at the start of the 119th Congress that GOP leaders should break up Trump\u2019s agenda into two bills, one focused on border security and defense and the other focused on extending the 2017 tax cuts, providing new tax relief and reducing the deficit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some GOP senators now say that the House should have embraced Thune\u2019s strategy because the negotiation of tax relief and deficit-reduction is taking a lot more time than the Speaker expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said he \u201cwould welcome\u201d shifting to Thune\u2019s two-bill strategy if his colleagues remain stalled on tax relief and deficit reduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to resist saying \u2018I told you so,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPart of the problem \u2026 is that this great big, beautiful bill is very, very complicated,\u201d he said. \u201cWe should have had our bill, extending the [2017] Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, border security and defense increases done. It should be law right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some frustration that we\u2019re doing the big, beautiful bill thing and that\u2019s probably getting away a little bit. It\u2019s too much, it might be too much,\u201d Cramer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, he said if Republicans leaders manage to get the massive bill passed by the fall, it would be a huge accomplishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans are divided over elements of the tax package, such as how much to raise the cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions, which is a top priority of GOP lawmakers from New York and New Jersey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the biggest sticking point is how to pay for a substantial part of the bill\u2019s cost, which could swell to trillions of dollars over the next decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 30 House Republicans signed a letter to Speaker Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) Wednesday warning that the bill enacting Trump\u2019s agenda \u201cmust not add to the deficit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter argued that while extending the 2017 tax cuts \u201cwill generate $2.5 trillion in additional revenue through economic growth,\u201d the cost of all additional tax cuts or increases in spending \u201cmust be offset.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe deficit reduction target must be met with real, enforceable spending cuts \u2014 not budget gimmicks,\u201d the group warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate conservatives led by Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) are making a strong push to reduce total annual federal spending from $7.3 trillion to $6.5 trillion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson says the $1.5 trillion deficit reduction number that the Speaker is aiming for is \u201ca joke.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c$1.5 trillion over 10 years? That\u2019s $150 billion a year. That takes it from $7.3 trillion to, at most, $7.1 trillion. What I\u2019m saying, at most, we should be looking at $6.5 trillion,\u201d the Wisconsin senator said at the WisPolitics D.C. Breakfast in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that cutting total annual federal spending to $6.5 trillion would bring spending down to what it was before the pandemic, accounting for population growth and inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Republican senator involved in the debate over deficit reduction said hitting Johnson\u2019s total spending target must remain a top priority, even though Republican moderates are pushing back hard against cuts to Medicaid and other safety-net programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am concerned about it,\u201d the senator said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to keep pushing on it. We\u2019ve got to get it $6.5 [trillion,] total spending. You can\u2019t do all that through reconciliation but we need a pathway to get there. \u2026 Our willingness to support the [package] will depend on the ability of a combination the White House and our leadership to have a framework in place for us to get to $6.5 [in total annual spending.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are 535 chefs,\u201d the lawmaker added, referring to the total number of lawmakers in the Senate and House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republican lawmakers generally agree on adding new work requirements to Medicaid and SNAP but deficit-reduction reforms that could impact benefits remain highly controversial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaker Johnson disappointed Republican budget hawks Tuesday evening when he ruled out a proposal to reduce the amount the federal government pays to states to provide expanded coverage of Medicaid, something known as the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also indicated that he would not likely support a controversial proposal to place per capita caps on Medicaid spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Republicans who warned they would not support a budget reconciliation package that cuts deeply into Medicaid cheered the announcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe House has said that they\u2019re not going to do the FMAP [cuts,] which is good,\u201d Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said. \u201cThey said they\u2019re going to do work requirements, which I\u2019m fine with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s a good trend because I don\u2019t want to see any Medicaid benefit cuts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawley said that Senate and House negotiators are working on parallel tracks in hopes of merging their work later this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy understanding is we\u2019re writing our own thing,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s dual track. \u2026 My sense is that we\u2019re going to write our own bill, we\u2019re not going to take whatever [the House chairmen] do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republicans are looking to regroup on President Trump\u2019s agenda, which one GOP lawmaker says is becoming a \u201ctrainwreck.\u201d Senate Republicans met at the Library of Congress Wednesday to plot a path forward on the stalled budget reconciliation bill, amid growing tensions between conservatives, who want to make deep cuts to government spending, and moderates, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10965,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1935,3309,2106],"class_list":["post-10964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-gop","tag-hope","tag-senators"],"yoast_head":"\nGOP senators hope to avoid Trump agenda becoming a \u2018trainwreck\u2019 - 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