Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has two main jobs in funding President Donald Trump’s regressive agenda: setting deadlines and counting votes. He has yet to prove he’s particularly adept at either, which makes it unlikely he’ll get Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” through the House by Memorial Day as he hopes. And when it comes to getting enough votes to pass what’s likely to be the most consequential bill of the year, he’ll have to skillfully juggle a competing set of priorities where one dropped ball could cause the whole thing to come tumbling down.
Republicans are trying this week to give some shape to this amorphous blob of a plan. The first few House markups are happening now. Once that process is done, Johnson still must cobble together all the pieces into one bill that achieves near unanimity from his caucus. There are plenty of troublemakers in the far-right camp who have already said they’ll happily let the speaker’s Memorial Day deadline lapse if the bill doesn’t satisfy their demands for savings. And once a final bill passes the House, it will still have to go to the Senate, where it may take pretending math isn’t real and ignoring the chamber’s rules to get the bill over the line.
That’s likely to be a bridge too far for some Republicans.
This is a preview of Hayes Brown's latest column. Read the full column here. |
