Donald Trump has been trying to get his big, beautiful bill passed through Congress, but it has not been easy.
As the House and Senate continue to joust over this, Trump is now reportedly applying pressure to ensure the bill is ready to go by July 4.
Trump has been doing just about everything he can to apply pressure to the House and Senate to get this bill on his desk, but Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) is not buckling.
Johnson has been clear that he will not be bullied into changing his “no” vote until the concessions he wants in the bill are made.
When Trump stated that any Senator who fails to support the bill would be “finished in politics,” Johnson responded, “I’d be happy to be done with politics.”
As I have stated before, this is not a good strategy because Trump is only making these Senators dig in deeper rather than listen to his demands.
The resistance is not only in the Senate, either. Since the Senate bill is making changes, the bill will have to go back to the House before it gets to Trump’s desk.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) has already stated that the changes made will not pass muster, and if Roy is against them, there will be enough members of the Freedom Caucus who will reject the bill as well.
Roy stated, “The message we’re delivering back — both to Senate leadership and to Senate conservatives — that they’re not getting the job done in terms of terminating the ‘Green New Scam’ subsidies, or frankly going far enough on Medicaid.
“I have said publicly, and I’m speaking for Chip Roy here — not anyone else — but I think there are some like-minded individuals that are not going to vote for a bill that does that. It is definitively dead if it were to come over to the House in anything resembling its current form: the IRA [Inflation Reduction Act] provisions, the ‘deficit damage,’ some of the other policy changes that we think are concerning.”
Trump has been adamant that he wants this bill on his desk by July 4, so he is really starting to turn the screws on Republicans who are against the legislation.
Now, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is reportedly stepping in, delivering a very clear message to the GOP caucus.
Senator Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) explained, “Get it done next week. She didn’t leave much room.” Senator Kennedy (R-LA), as only he can, added, “Some people are going to have to settle for a ham and egg sandwich without the ham. That’s just the way it is.”
I just don’t see this bill coming when Trump wants it, with the battle lines that have been drawn, and Trump is only adding to the problems with his daily threats against his fellow Republicans, that deadline is clearly at risk. They have real concerns, and if Trump tries to bully them, he will fail to deliver this spending bill.
