{"id":22623,"date":"2026-05-13T08:47:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/ballroom-gas-tax-fights-illustrate-gops-affordability-pickle\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T08:47:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:47:30","slug":"ballroom-gas-tax-fights-illustrate-gops-affordability-pickle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/ballroom-gas-tax-fights-illustrate-gops-affordability-pickle\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballroom, gas-tax fights illustrate GOP\u2019s affordability pickle"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Americans are furious about the rising cost of living<\/a>, and a series of internal battles on Capitol Hill this week is laying bare why Republicans are struggling to do anything about it.<\/p>\n

House and Senate Republicans are facing divisions over a gas-tax holiday being demanded by President Donald Trump, not to mention housing and energy permitting bills that have stalled for months.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a long-term immigration enforcement bill that could be the last major piece of GOP legislation before the midterms has become engulfed by the inclusion of a billion-dollar Secret Service funding request that has put a spotlight on Trump\u2019s controversial White House ballroom project.<\/p>\n

The scale of the political challenges facing Republicans were further underscored Tuesday with the administration\u2019s latest cost estimate for the Iran war surpassing $29 billion<\/a> and a brutal inflation report<\/a> showing gas, grocery and housing prices surging last month amid the conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t know that the Congress is doing a whole lot \u2014 that\u2019s the real issue,\u201d said Sen. Josh Hawley<\/a> (R-Mo.). \u201cMy advice to Congress would be, it might be good for us to do something on cost of living. \u2026 It seems like voters are making it very clear that they want some relief.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Lisa Murkowski<\/a> (R-Alaska) also offered a blunt assessment of the optics the party is facing as they try to approve the Secret Service funding, which can be used for parts of Trump\u2019s ballroom project, as Americans deal with high gas prices<\/p>\n

\u201cNot good,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Secret Service Director Sean Curran met with Senate Republicans Tuesday to make the case for his agency\u2019s staggering request, but several GOP senators said afterward that they aren\u2019t satisfied<\/a> with the explanations administration officials have so far provided.<\/p>\n

Even some senior House Republicans are airing public doubts about the security funding \u2014 about $220 million of which could end up being spent as part of the ballroom project, according to a breakdown given to senators<\/a> and obtained by Blue Light News.<\/p>\n

House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington<\/a> (R-Texas) said in an interview Tuesday he did not doubt the need for additional security for Trump and other Secret Service protectees but would \u201creserve judgment\u201d on the $1 billion request as he seeks an \u201citemized\u201d list of what it would fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope it\u2019s narrowly tailored to getting [immigration enforcement] funded and restoring the safety and security of the American people,\u201d said Arrington, who initially wanted affordability and other measures added to the party-line bill.<\/p>\n

Curran\u2019s visit to Capitol Hill Tuesday was part of a White House lobbying blitz for the security funding, with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and White House legislative affairs director James Braid making pitches to other groups of Republicans in closed-door meetings Tuesday and Wednesday.<\/p>\n

One member granted anonymity to speak candidly said it could get \u201cugly\u201d with the White House seemingly determined to get it done despite GOP lawmakers\u2019 protests. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick<\/a> (R-Pa.), a key centrist, said in an interview<\/a> Tuesday that the $1 billion request was simply \u201cnot happening here\u201d in the House.<\/p>\n

Republicans believe they\u2019ve already taken some steps to address cost-of-living concerns, including the tax cuts included in last year\u2019s \u201cbig, beautiful bill\u201d that they hope Americans are beginning to feel benefits from.<\/p>\n

But the ballroom security squabble has handed Democrats something they view as a potent political cudgel heading into November.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of listening to the American people, Donald Trump and the GOP put forward a reconciliation bill that would force Americans to pay for Trump\u2019s billion-dollar-ballroom and tens of billions of dollars more for Trump\u2019s masked agents while including zero \u2014 zero \u2014 dollars to bring down Americans\u2019 costs,\u201d Minority Leader Chuck Schumer<\/a> said on the Senate floor Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The issue for congressional Republicans is that many of the ideas currently being batted around to address high prices divide their ranks, giving them an unclear path to Trump\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n

Senate Republicans pointed to a long-brewing permitting overhaul Tuesday as a way to potentially reduce energy costs \u2014 but the proposal has remained just out of reach for years now. And, according to two attendees, GOP senators urged Speaker Mike Johnson<\/a> to pass their housing bill without changes, believing it could give the party a quick way to show voters they hear their concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it gets at the core issue, the heart of the matter for most voters, which is affordability,\u201d Senate Majority Leader John Thune<\/a> said about the need to pass the housing bill.<\/p>\n

The closed-door lunch came after a group of GOP senators met with Trump Monday at the White House, where they discussed the fate of a housing bill that passed the Senate on an 89-10 vote in March. Afterward, Trump went on Truth Social and urged Congress to quickly pass the legislation.<\/p>\n

But House Republican leaders are signaling they want to make further changes, which would require it to be passed in the Senate a second time — even though White House officials are strongly pushing back<\/a> on that idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d just be happy if they do something,\u201d Sen. John Kennedy<\/a> (R-La.) said Tuesday, blaming \u201cone or two\u201d House Republicans for the impasse: \u201cThey\u2019ve been holding it up since God was a baby. Their reasons for holding it up run from substantive to \u2018my dog ate my homework.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump, for his part, has made a series of comments that have only fueled accusations that his party isn\u2019t focused enough on affordability.<\/p>\n

Asked Tuesday as he left the White House for his overseas trip to China whether Americans\u2019 finances figured into his approach to the Iran conflict, he gave an answer Democrats immediately pounced on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think about America’s financial situation,\u201d he said. \u201cI don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump did, however, throw his support behind a modest cost-of-living measure Monday, saying he wanted to suspend the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax to alleviate Iran-related price hikes.<\/p>\n

House GOP leaders, however, are not thrilled with the idea. They are hoping the White House finds a way for Trump to take some steps to lower gas prices through executive actions and leave Congress out of it, according to five people granted anonymity to describe internal conversations.<\/p>\n

There are also scores of Republicans, for instance, who publicly admonished then-President Joe Biden for floating the same idea amid in 2022 after Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and, in the words of one of the people, would have to \u201ceat shit\u201d if they go back on that position now.<\/p>\n

Thune didn\u2019t rule out an eventual vote on a gas-tax holiday, but he characterized proposals from Hawley and others as \u201ctrial balloons.\u201d He suggested the move could impact highway projects without meaningfully lowering gas prices.\u201cThe question is, would it get passed on to the consumer \u2026 or would it get absorbed in the supply chain somehow?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Johnson told reporters Tuesday suspending the federal gas tax was an \u201cintriguing\u201d idea but added that Republicans have to work through any “unintended consequences” of such a move and will continue to discuss it.<\/p>\n

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise<\/a> was also noncommittal: \u201cObviously we all want to see gas prices come back down, and when the Iran conflict is resolved, they will, and they’ll come down quickly. I don’t think anybody disputes that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’re seeing the president work really hard to try to get this resolved,\u201d he added. \u201cHopefully it\u2019s soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the top Republicans may be forced into action as rank-and-file backers of a gas-tax holiday, such as Rep. Anna Paulina Luna<\/a> (R-Fla.), arguing Congress needs to act quickly to pass a bill before the Memorial Day recess starts in just over a week.<\/p>\n

That sense of urgency is not shared by other GOP lawmakers who view a gas-tax holiday as an ineffective Band-Aid \u2014 including Sen. Jim Justice<\/a> (R-W.Va.), who compared it to \u201ctaking aspirin for cancer,\u201d and Sen. Rand Paul<\/a> (R-Ky.), who identified a more consequential driver of high prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think instead of suspending the tax, we should suspend the war,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mia McCarthy, Riley Rogerson and Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Americans are furious about the rising cost of living, and a series of internal battles on Capitol Hill this week is laying bare why Republicans are struggling to do anything about it. House and Senate Republicans are facing divisions over a gas-tax holiday being demanded by President Donald Trump, not to mention housing and energy […]<\/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-22623","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\/22623","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=22623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22623\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}