{"id":10246,"date":"2025-06-13T09:02:46","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T09:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/the-senate-gops-hard-liners-are-suddenly-sounding-softer-on-the-megabill\/"},"modified":"2025-06-13T09:02:46","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T09:02:46","slug":"the-senate-gops-hard-liners-are-suddenly-sounding-softer-on-the-megabill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/the-senate-gops-hard-liners-are-suddenly-sounding-softer-on-the-megabill\/","title":{"rendered":"The Senate GOP\u2019s hard-liners are suddenly sounding softer on the megabill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Senate\u2019s conservative hard-liners vowed to wage holy war against the \u201cbig, beautiful bill.\u201d Now they appear to be coming to Jesus.<\/p>\n

The recent rhetorical downshift from some of the loudest GOP critics of the pending megabill underscores the political reality for conservatives: As much as they want to rail publicly about the legislation and the need to address any number of pressing national emergencies in it, very few are willing to buck President Donald Trump on his biggest priority.<\/p>\n

None of them are ready to cave just yet. But the White House and their GOP colleagues increasingly believe that three senators in particular \u2014 Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah and Rick Scott of Florida \u2014 are now on track to support the bill.<\/p>\n

Johnson, in particular, has softened his once-fierce criticism of the legislation<\/a> in recent days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all want to see President Trump succeed,\u201d he said in a brief interview this week. \u201cEverybody is trying to help. That\u2019s why, if I seem to have been striking a more hopeful tone, it\u2019s because I am more hopeful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just a couple of weeks ago, Johnson was demanding near-unworkable levels of spending cuts and warning that the bill would drive the nation off a fiscal cliff. Then the Trump administration and members of Republican leadership went to work.<\/p>\n

Johnson made a pitch to Trump during a recent one-on-one phone call to let him work with administration officials on his deficit reduction plan. That led to a meeting with Vice President JD Vance and Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council. A person with knowledge of the meeting, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said afterward that the White House is \u201coptimistic that there\u2019s a path to getting Johnson to yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump also privately urged Johnson during a meeting with other Finance Committee Republicans last week to speak more positively about the bill. The callout came after Trump officials \u2014 and Trump himself \u2014 grew annoyed watching Johnson savage the bill on television.<\/p>\n

His message: You should be out there selling this bill proudly, he told Johnson, according to two White House officials granted anonymity to describe the meeting \u2014 arguing that even if he doesn\u2019t love every detail, there was plenty in the bill for Republicans to be proud of.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the president says, \u2018Ron, you\u2019ve been so negative, that\u2019s just not even helpful,\u2019 I want to be helpful,\u201d Johnson said, acknowledging Trump\u2019s message in the meeting and admitting he has \u201cdownplayed what is good in the bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the White House officials summarized the approach to Johnson: \u201cDon’t be negative to create leverage for yourself,\u201d the person said. \u201cIf you want to negotiate, like, we can negotiate in private. We’re all reasonable people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hands-on efforts to win over Johnson are part of a larger effort to try to help the fiscal hawks find a soft landing \u2014 and at least the semblance of some concessions that will be able to hold up as wins in the end. That\u2019s played out in face-to-face meetings with administration officials, negotiations over pet provisions and discussions about how to continue the fight to cut budget deficits down the road.<\/p>\n

Being able to win over their deficit hawks would be a huge boon to Majority Leader John Thune, who has acknowledged that he\u2019s got one hard \u201cno\u201d vote in Sen. Rand Paul, who firmly opposes the bill\u2019s debt-ceiling hike. Thune can only afford to lose three GOP senators, with Vance breaking a tie.<\/p>\n

That has given the fiscal hawks leverage, since the GOP leaders can\u2019t afford to lose all of them, and that\u2019s on top of the other potential headaches they have to navigate<\/a> elsewhere in the conference.<\/p>\n

To hear the fiscal hawks tell it, they are sounding a more positive note about their ability to support the bill because the administration is starting to take their demands seriously. To help appease their holdouts, GOP leaders have tried to scrounge up additional savings beyond what is included in the House bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe we\u2019ll get a deal done. I’m doing everything I can to represent my state,\u201d Scott said in a brief interview.<\/p>\n

GOP leaders are working to assuage Lee by tucking one of his top priorities into the bill. The deregulatory proposal, known as the REINS Act<\/a>, was initially expected to run afoul of Senate rules for the party-line reconciliation process, but leaders have been working to try to find a version that could pass muster.<\/p>\n

House conservatives, meanwhile, have grown increasingly worried that the Senate, with the blessing of their fiscal-hawk allies, will send back a bill that waters down some of their hard-fought victories. The House Freedom Caucus has laid out public demands, while its members have met privately with Lee, Scott and Johnson to strategize about additional spending reductions and maintaining their policy wins.<\/p>\n

The Senate hard-liners aren\u2019t ready to concede just yet. Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has promised Johnson he will advance a second reconciliation bill, giving conservatives another chance to enact cuts. But Johnson said that wouldn\u2019t be enough to get him on board. Instead he wants a \u201cforcing mechanism\u201d to maintain a longer-term push to return to 2019 spending levels. He\u2019s letting the White House brainstorm other ideas and described himself as \u201creasonably flexible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee said in a statement he\u2019s \u201cbeen working with my colleagues and the White House to make the Big Bill Beautiful.\u201d But added: \u201cIt\u2019s not where it needs to be yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to sell federal land to help fix the housing crisis, terminate benefits that flow to illegals, end the Green New Scam, and get rid of the Medicaid provider tax. I want to see this effort cross the finish line, but we need to do more,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Even as they continue to push, their colleagues see the signs of late softening \u2014 and aren\u2019t surprised whatsoever. \u201cThey\u2019ll fold,\u201d said a GOP colleague who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.<\/p>\n

Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said that Republicans have \u201cmade progress\u201d with Johnson and \u201cI wouldn\u2019t count him out.\u201d And two others, Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and John Kennedy (R-La.), said they expect Lee, Scott and Johnson to come around when the bill comes up for a final vote, even if they don\u2019t ultimately love every provision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re very gettable,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cAt some point people are just going to have to decide, is this good enough?\u201d<\/p>\n

Rachael Bade and Meredith Lee Hill contributed reporting.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Senate\u2019s conservative hard-liners vowed to wage holy war against the \u201cbig, beautiful bill.\u201d Now they appear to be coming to Jesus. The recent rhetorical downshift from some of the loudest GOP critics of the pending megabill underscores the political reality for conservatives: As much as they want to rail publicly about the legislation and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}