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President Donald Trump’s domestic policy agenda advances: At 3:30 a.m., House Republicans advanced the policy bill. “After a day and night of paralysis on the House floor, and haggling and uncertainty in the Capitol, Speaker Mike Johnson scored a preliminary victory in his bid to overcome resistance within his party when the House voted to allow the bill to come up for debate,” reports The New York Times. The vote, 219–213, makes it look like Johnson has possibly won over some Republicans who had been putting up a fight. There’s still one final vote left, and it’s possible it will sink things, but the fact that the bill has advanced is huge for Johnson (and Trump).
Around 5 a.m. this morning, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D–N.Y.) started deploying all tools in his arsenal to delay the vote, calling the bill a “disgusting abomination” that would harm poor Americans. He’s read accounts from people who say drastic cuts to Medicaid would destroy their lives. But Jeffries—and the Democrats overall—have very little power to actually stave off a vote. The bill looks likely to pass if Republican holdouts continue to be pacified and fall in line.
“FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE,” wrote the president on Truth Social a little past midnight, as the bill was still in limbo. “RIDICULOUS!!!”
“I do so deeply desire to have just [a] normal Congress, but it doesn’t happen anymore,” Johnson told reporters right after Trump’s post, sounding a little emo. “I don’t want to make history, but we’re forced into these situations.” Well, that’s what happens when a party that was historically in favor of reining in government spending gets co-opted by a sort of big-government populist fervor. Of course there’s no consensus! It’s a party riven by huge shifts in ideology.
Anyway, the bill is unfortunately likely to pass some time this morning, contra the objections of folks like Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.), who are worried about how this will add to the def
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