Republicans return to Congress Monday to face a grim reality, according to a new report. Their push to rush through President Donald Trump’s aggressive agenda has hit a standstill.
Politico reported the ‘brutal reality check” comes as party members in the House and Senate struggle to come to any agreement over how to fund what Trump has promised to deliver.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has urged his members to rush through plans on how to deliver Trump’s agenda of energy, defense and border policies, along with a tax overhaul, in just three weeks.
But as of Monday there’s barely any agreement on how to do that, Politico reported.
“How can we be moving quickly when some of those foundational questions haven’t been settled?” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) asked the outlet.
A flurry of meetings is scheduled to take place over the next few days. But Politico reported the Senate has “widespread skepticism among GOP senators that the House can deliver on a bill that meets the budget it adopted last month — particularly its goal of $2 trillion in spending cuts.”
‘But there’s a Catch-22,” Politico reported. Johnson’s allies have no intention of drafting a bill before they’re clear about what the Senate will agree too.
“How can we do that without knowing the Senate number?” a House Republican asked the news outlet.
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Another said, “That’s not how this works.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s members are balking at nearly $4 trillion costs involved in Trump’s tax cuts, along with widespread consternation about potential cuts to Medicaid.
And some don’t expect the next few days to change anything.
“Talk, talk, talk, talk,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said. “Just like the last 10 weeks.”
“Probably what we are going to do is talk each other to death, stare at each other and then eventually, you know, confuse the issue so much that it takes two months to unravel what we agree to,” said Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Politico.
