Congress

Conservatives hope to enlist Trump in their spending war. It won’t be that easy.

Published

2 years ago

December 24, 2024

Conservatives who want to slash the federal budget are hoping they can enlist President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk to their side come January. But last week’s meltdown over government funding underscored that Trump doesn’t always share their fiscal restraint.

Though Trump and Musk helped upend an initial bipartisan appropriations deal loathed by fiscal hardliners, 38 House Republicans later balked at Trump’s big demand in the next bill: a looser limit on Washington’s borrowing authority.

That move is a reminder that Trump exploded the deficit and greenlit billions in additional spending during his first term — two overall budget concerns that the House Republicans who opposed last week’s bill say they want to fix.

After the debt ceiling battle last week, the fiscal rebels, GOP leadership and Trump appeared to land on a handshake agreement to raise the debt limit next year in exchange for $2.5 trillion in spending cuts. It won’t be easy as Republicans try to deliver on campaign pledges that include bolstering border security, slashing taxes and boosting energy production.

For now, fiscal conservatives are banking on Trump being their best hope after losing battle after battle the last two years.

“We allow the bureaucracy to grow. We pass CR after CR,” said Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, who voted against a Trump-blessed funding plan on the floor last week. “That’s going to be where the Trump bully pulpit is going to come in and actually try to deal with some of this stasis, this problem.”

“We’ve never had the level of focused reform that you have coming in,” echoed Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.). “The incoming executive branch is on our side.”

It’s a big risk for fiscal hardliners. Trump could be effective at pushing for cuts if he wants, or he could end up amplifying the GOP’s existing internal fights and cause more chaos. And if he doesn’t ultimately align with conservatives on their spending goals, it raises questions about whether those members will get into a public fight with the incoming president or bend to his will.

And they’re not the only ones courting Trump and Musk. Different factions of the conference have their own relationships with the president-elect and have been clearly trying to appeal to Musk on his mission to find significant government funding cuts. And Speaker Mike Johnson has worked diligently for months to keep Trump on his side, with mixed results. Trump may be unhappy with Johnson after the spending battle, but he hasn’t publicly crossed him ahead of the Jan. 3 speaker vote — where Johnson appears to be on thin ice.

“Things are going to be very different around here. This was a necessary step to bridge the gap to put us into that moment where we can put our fingerprints on the final decisions on spending for 2025,” Johnson said shortly after the House passed a bill that funded the government with wide Democratic support.

Other, more centrist Republicans, are also embracing the idea of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, even if they aren’t aligned on the specifics. Some are actively hoping Trump can help them tame their hardliners instead of emboldening them.

“I think unified government helps us, because I think President Trump is going to tell some of these guys: ‘Get in line,’” said centrist Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), noting, without naming anyone, that the GOP is also losing some of its most “incendiary” members.

Even appropriators are opening the door to having outside eyes on the federal budget process — they have their own ideas for where Trump and his allies should look to cut spending.

“If this DOGE group really wants to do something, they should look at the mandatory spending, how we can fix that problem,” said Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio), referring to a bucket of government funding that involves things like Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare.

But members of the House Freedom Caucus and others in their corner of the conference have already started to try to sway Trump’s DOGE leaders, in particular. They warned Musk and his co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy during a closed-door meeting that some of the very House Republicans in the room with them were the biggest impediment to overhauling spending and the size of the federal government, according to three people in the meeting.

Conservatives will also have two notable allies in the middle of the White House budget process: Russ Vought, who Trump intends to nominate to lead the Office of Management and Budget, and outgoing North Carolina Rep. Dan Bishop, who is being tapped for the No. 2 OMB spot.

And they are encouraging Musk and Ramaswamy to effectively launch a public pressure campaign against Republicans who impede their efforts — a move that could risk backfiring. There are early signs that GOP lawmakers are already bristling after Musk injected uncertainty into the December spending fight. The two men also pitched creating a “naughty” and “nice” list to help keep members accountable.

“I think what they’re able to do is shine a spotlight on this crap and frankly force Congress to do its job,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas). “Their primary benefit is going to be [to] expose — if they can highlight the stupid then Congress has to defend the stupid, or they have to get with the program to fix the stupid.”

Congress

How Talarico is countering Trump’s midterms convention

Published

2 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

James Talarico is planning to counterprogram President Donald Trump’s GOP midterms convention in Dallas with a focus on affordability.

The idea from the Texas Democratic Senate candidate and seminarian: host a statewide “Love Thy Neighbor” food drive to offer a contrast with Republicans coming to town and highlight the high cost of groceries, according to plans shared first with Blue Light News.

“Next week, billionaire mega-donors and their puppet politicians will gather at a convention in Dallas to clink champagne glasses and toast their own corruption. They’re paying $20,000 for entry to a Billionaire Ball celebrating corrupt tariffs, billionaire tax breaks, and a new forever war that are all driving grocery costs through the roof,” Talarico said in a statement to Blue Light News. “We’ll be doing something different. We’re bringing Republicans, Democrats, and Independents together to collect groceries for our neighbors who have been screwed over by corrupt politicians.”

The campaign said it will “mobilize volunteers to collect, sort, and donate groceries for middle class Texans struggling with the high price of groceries.” The event will last from Sunday, Sept. 6 through Wednesday, Sept. 9 — the same day the GOP convention kicks off.

Talarico is also expected to field media interviews in a large warehouse near the convention.

“Texans across the political spectrum will come together to build community, show up for their neighbors, and take power back for working people,” the campaign said in a statement.

A recent poll conducted by Texas Public Opinion Research poll released last week showed Talarico leading ,his opponent Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, 48 percent to 42 percent.

Trump this week said he would campaign for Paxton soon.

Congress

‘I don’t think anyone is really comfortable’: Democrat leading on AI raises alarms at Trump, Zuckerberg call

Published

2 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A House Democrat trying to lead her party on artificial intelligence policy sent a warning shot Friday to tech CEOs trying to undermine efforts to regulate the fast-growing technology.

In an interview, Rep. Lori Trahan raised alarm bells over a POLITICO report detailing attempts by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to personally discourage President Donald Trump from moving ahead with plans to establish an independent AI regulator modeled after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA.

“I don’t think anyone is really comfortable when they see tech executives who are sitting on the stage at the president’s inauguration, and have had to pay millions of dollars to this fund and that fund, calling the shots,” said the Massachusetts Democrat.

Allowing Zuckerberg to call the shots on the proposed AI commission would be tantamount to “a complete abdication of Congress,” Trahan continued. She also suggested would use her perch on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to work with other Democrats to haul in industry executives like Zuckerberg to testify, should Democrats win back the House majority in the midterms.

“Congress’ job is to do oversight and to have those hearings,” she said. “And I think we would learn a lot from those hearings so that we can put pen to paper on thoughtful proposals. So yes, there have been a number of people, myself included, who have called for those hearings, and I think we’re going to continue to do that.”

Trahan is poised to be a major player in the coming weeks and months when it comes to AI, especially if Democrats prevail in the November elections and are forced to solidify a position on the subject; the party is currently all over the map.

Unlike other Democrats who have retreated to their corners to work on partisan proposals, Trahan has gone out on a limb by crossing the aisle to broker a deal on a bipartisan AI safety bill with Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) — a package that was originally met with disdain by members of both parties.

She announced this week she would opt out of a run for a place in House Democratic leadership after being widely expected to make a play in the next Congress — in part, she said, to continue working on AI issues.

But Trahan’s comments Friday illustrate the deep distrust among Democrats, herself included, over the GOP approach to AI regulation — from Republicans waffling on whether they support the proliferation of data centers to Trump’s recent call with Zuckerberg.

Her calls are consistent with left-leaning members like Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat and chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who has been at the forefront of the most aggressive proposals to crack down on top tech companies.

“The CEOs of Anthropic and OpenAI say that cutting edge AI could be as dangerous as nuclear weapons,” Casar said Thursday on X in response to the Blue Light News report. “But Trump is conspiring with billionaires for this technology to be regulated like … Hollywood movies.”

Trahan said Friday that “reasonable people can disagree on what regulatory construct we come up with” governing development and use of AI.

But, she added, “what I don’t think the American people agree with is that Mark Zuckerberg and President Trump are going to figure that out on a phone call.”

Congress

House Dem election leader’s message to states: Count faster

Published

2 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Democrats’ top election leader has a message for states ahead of the midterms: count faster.

“We are, I think, nicely trying to encourage people to do their balloting as quickly as possible, and that means hiring additional staff so that it doesn’t call into question results,” Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said in a Thursday interview with Blue Light News.

The advice is just one part of Morelle’s efforts to secure the midterm elections. He said Democrats have wargamed over 150 scenarios of how the Trump administration could attempt to interfere or complicate the November elections and its certification. He is encouraging states to have a “degree of urgency” when counting ballots to stave off Republican-led conspiracy theories about the reasons for delays.

Morelle said he is leaning on states to staff up on election officials to facilitate speedy ballot counting while emphasizing the process should still be “done properly,” “fairly” and that “we don’t want people with cast ballots not to have their ballots counted.” He is going to Los Angeles next week to deliver that message and meet with election security experts and election administrators — though he did not specify whom he is meeting with or where.

“We are trying to gently encourage people to staff up,” he said. Morelle added that if Democrats take the House majority, they’d “push for more resources for local and state administrators so they can hire additional capacity.”

Morelle has other big plans in the majority, including cracking down on dark money in politics, protecting voting rights and most notably, working on a bipartisan voter identification bill.

Asked whether he could accept some form of voter identification as part of a larger bipartisan elections package, Morelle said, “I’m personally not opposed to some form of voter ID,” adding that he has opposed multiple Republican-led proposals to tighten up identification requirements.

“I don’t know where my colleagues on the Democrat side will be, but I think voters think, ‘Okay, you show your ID for just tons of things. Is it really that much of a burden?’” he said. “And if it is, we’ll get state issued IDs or federally issued IDs to people who can’t afford it. So I do think that there’s hope for a bipartisan way forward, and I’ll be anxious to work with colleagues to do it.”