The GOP could be set for a "crash into reality" as representatives struggle to bring legislative change into focus.
There are "deep divisions" within the Republican party, according to Politico, which has suggested the GOP will struggle to make good on any legislative wins in the next few months. The congressional GOP could be part of the problem there as Republicans remain split on health care costs and cost-of-living issues.
Calen Razor of Politico wrote, "Deep divisions remain among Republicans over how to address spiking health care costs — and whether they should jam through a potential solution with a party-line vote in the Senate. And, of course, Democrats have little interest in helping them out."
The publication also suggested that the Republicans would "crash into the reality of the congressional GOP." It comes as Senator Lisa Murkowski called on legislation, not reconciliation, to be the lead point of the administration in the coming months.
She said, "I don’t want another one-sided, partisan reconciliation bill right now — I want us to legislate. Let’s be legislators here. Reconciliation is, yes, it’s a tool for us, but it’s a partisan tool and look at how divided we are right now. … That’s not the way to go."
Speaker Mike Johnson also spoke of party unity and said the split in the GOP must be fixed so they can "deliver for the people." He said, "I work on unity in the party, and my encouragement of everybody is to get together. We’ve got to do all that in order to deliver for the people."
Party unity for the Republicans could be crucial now more than ever after Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman warned Donald Trump was failing on multiple fronts. Krugman wrote in his Substack, "Trump seems to be collapsing on multiple fronts, with the collapse on each front reinforcing the collapse on others."
"The Epstein affair is coming to a head even as the public loses all faith in his economic policy, and the whole structure of fear on which his regime rests appears to be evaporating. He also seems to be unraveling personally."
"We always knew that President 'Piggy' despised women and admired tyrants, seeing nothing wrong with hacking up your critics with a bone saw. But even a few months ago I think he would have been self-controlled enough to be less obvious about it."