Congress
‘They realize I’m serious’: Inside Ron Johnson’s megabill talks with the White House
Sen. Ron Johnson said Wednesday he’s not ready to support Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy bill. But the Wisconsin Republican said that the White House, including the president himself, is helping to move him closer to yes.
Johnson shared details of Monday’s one-on-one meeting with Trump in an exclusive interview where he credited the administration for working with him on a push to set up a budget review panel that would force Congress to return to the issue of deficit reduction even after the “big, beautiful bill” is passed.
He said he remains in discussions about getting the concept included in the megabill ahead of its floor consideration, which could begin as soon as Friday. Besides his meeting with Trump, Johnson said he also spoke this week with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
“I realize we can’t do this in one fell swoop. I think the main sticking point is … what’s the forcing mechanism to actually realize those savings, to enact them?” Johnson said.
The panel, he said, would be made up of members of the House, Senate and the Office of Management and Budget. Part of the ongoing discussions are about how it gets funded and if executive orders are needed to back it up.
So far they haven’t landed on a “forcing mechanism” bulletproof enough to convince Johnson he will get another bite at the apple. GOP leaders, administration officials and even Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have said they intend to pursue another party-line reconciliation bill to sweep up any orphaned policy priorities, which would give fiscal hawks like Johnson another chance to seek funding cuts.
But Johnson is warning that verbal commitments won’t be enough to sway him. He said he floated a shorter debt ceiling hike to force Congress back to the table, but the White House has shot that down.
“I’ve got everybody’s attention,” Johnson said, adding that it’s “coming down to crunch time — they realize I’m serious, so they need to get serious.”
The behind-the-scenes efforts to try to get Johnson on board comes as Senate Majority Leader John Thune tries to lock down a range of holdouts on the megabill. He’s got fiscal hawks such as Johnson to contend with as well as a number of GOP senators who are concerned that the bill’s Medicaid cutbacks will have negative impacts on their home states.
Thune can lose three GOP senators and still let Vice President JD Vance break a tie. He acknowledged this week he “could” lose two or three of his members.
Monday’s White House meeting came after Trump privately told Johnson during a meeting with Finance Committee Republicans earlier this month that he needed to speak more positively about the megabill. Johnson said Trump acknowledged in their conversation that he had been more upbeat in recent weeks.
Still, he’s not a supporter. Asked about Thune wanting a first vote in a matter of days, Johnson noted that Republican senators haven’t gotten final text yet.
“I don’t mind the President and Senator Thune saying, okay, we’ve got to get this done by July 4,” he said. “I think that’s a stretch, I think we have a lot of outstanding issues, but setting that deadline is concentrating everybody’s efforts.”
House Republicans have advanced a bill that would prohibit members of Congress and their family members from trading on certain Washington-focused prediction markets.
The House Administration Committee’s GOP members on Wednesday voted along party lines in favor of the legislation, which proposes to bar lawmakers, their spouses and their dependent children from participating on prediction markets that are based on the outcome of elections or government actions.
It marks the latest in Capitol Hill’s efforts to curb the threat of insider trading on the prediction markets — a risk that has burst into the spotlight in recent months after a series of well-timed trades around the capture of then-Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, Google’s search results and the Iran war. Earlier this year, the Senate banned its members and their staffs from trading on the prediction markets altogether, effective immediately.
And yet, the House Administration Committee vote also revealed a fracture within the House over how far to go in clamping down on lawmakers’ use of the prediction markets. Democrats opposed the bill, saying it didn’t go far enough, while Republicans supported it.
Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, who is the committee’s top Democrat, argued that the legislation is “so filled with loopholes that it looks more like a sieve than a bill.” Instead of passing such a bill, he said the House should follow the Senate’s lead and approve a new and broader resolution aimed at prediction market use among members and their staffs.
“The Senate did it in a matter of minutes — no six-month grace period, no procedurally laborious process,” Morelle said. “They just went to the floor with a two-page resolution and banned it all unanimously. We should do the same.”
House Administration Chair Bryan Steil, who introduced the bill, hit back at his Democratic counterpart’s concerns by questioning why members’ families shouldn’t be allowed to bet on sports through the prediction markets — but can through sportsbooks or casinos.
The Wisconsin Republican pointed to a hypothetical scenario where a member’s child is at college and bets on a sporting event through a prediction market platform. That situation, he said, could be covered by a broader prohibition.
Steil, rather, said his bill is aimed at addressing public policy- and election-focused markets.
“Lawmakers elect to serve the American people, not to enrich themselves by wagering on outcomes from the decisions they make,” he said. “We have a real opportunity to restore trust in Congress by taking necessary steps to eliminate even the appearance of impropriety.”
House Republican leaders canceled plans to advance a procedural measure Wednesday that would set up passage of two fiscal 2027 appropriations bills and other legislation this week, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the decision ahead of a public announcement.
The decision comes amid pressure from GOP hard-liners to prioritize passage of the SAVE America Act, a Republican elections bill that has stalled in the Senate — and after President Donald Trump refused to sign a high-profile bipartisan housing bill passed Tuesday, also in a bid to get the elections bill moving.
Speaker Mike Johnson and other leaders are expected to keep members in Washington for now while they determine next steps, the people said.
Hours after Democratic socialist candidates swept to victory in New York primary races, Republicans celebrated those victories as a boon for their own party as it struggles against headwinds from the Iran war and cost of living issues ahead of the November midterms.
Inside a closed-door House GOP meeting Wednesday morning, the head of the Republican campaign arm said the victories of candidates backed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani offered an opportunity for GOP House candidates to draw a sharp contrast.
Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina said “Democrats have a Bolshevik revolution going on in their primaries,” according to three people in the room granted anonymity to discuss the private event.
Speaker Mike Johnson also delivered remarks to Republicans setting the stakes of the election after the “radical” left-wing wins and urging Republicans to dig in and raise money to defeat Democrats this fall. He received a standing ovation, the people in the room said.
Hudson said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will take the socialists’ wins as a sign he needs to navigate further to the left. There will be no cooperation with Republicans, he added.
Other Republicans publicly seized on the left-wing triumphs Wednesday, including Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio — who said “the lesson is clear: if Republicans don’t act now, we will lose this country as we know it.”
“We need to be clear about what we stand for,” he wrote on X. “Closed borders, secure elections, economic prosperity for all Americans, and, most of all, proudly protecting the American way of life against socialism.”
-
Politics1 year agoFormer ‘Squad’ members launching ‘Bowman and Bush’ YouTube show
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoLuigi Mangione acknowledges public support in first official statement since arrest
-
Politics1 year agoFormer Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron launches Senate bid
-
Uncategorized2 years ago
Bob Good to step down as Freedom Caucus chair this week
-
The Josh Fourrier Show2 years agoDOOMSDAY: Trump won, now what?
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoPete Hegseth’s tenure at the Pentagon goes from bad to worse
-
Politics1 year agoBlue Light News’s Editorial Director Ryan Hutchins speaks at Blue Light News’s 2025 Governors Summit
-
The Dictatorship10 months agoMike Johnson sums up the GOP’s arrogant position on military occupation with two words