While President Trump’s winning streak continues, it doesn’t just continue because of President Trump.
It is also continuing because Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is doing an extraordinary job in the House, where he has an unbelievably slim margin. His margin is somewhere between one and three votes, depending on who actually shows up for the vote.
Yet, somehow, he was capable of pushing through a gigantic House budget bill on Tuesday night.
Now, there are all sorts of problems with these gigantic bills. The biggest problem, of course, is that no one in power ever has any interest in serious cuts to what matters in American government. Instead, they sort of shovel those cuts off down the road.
They make commitments to commit.
All of that has just been a regular feature of American government from Republicans and Democrats for as long as I’ve been alive, which is why the line in terms of national debt keeps going up and to the right.
However, this budget bill enshrines the Trump tax cuts of 2017 and provides additional funding to defense, which is absolutely necessary. It provides additional funding to the border, which is necessary, and it pledges to actually take a look at cuts that will offset some of the loss of tax revenue theoretically to be achieved by the Trump tax cuts.
Last night, there was all sorts of consternation about whether House Republicans would be able to get it together. Originally, it seemed as though there were some House Republicans who were going to object to the House budget bill and not get on board with it because they believed that it didn’t cut enough.
A lot of these people were fiscal conservatives. I agree with them on principle, but I also understand that the only way a bill gets done, with Republicans in purple districts and an incredibly slim margin, is with more spending than is wanted.
This was Mike Johnson’s entire proposal as speaker of the House. The reason he pursued one “big, beautiful bill” is because he figured that if all of these issues were separated, they would become separate bills that would never pass because of the many purists and many issues who would be able to sink the boats.
Instead, he wrapped it up in one big ballot to make people vote up or vote down. That was the strategy.
If you don’t like it, then you need to elect more Republicans to Congress. The GOP has a very slim majority. Thus, any bill that comes out is likely to be more “moderate” in its approach than if you had a much larger majority where you could lose a few moderates in the vote and still maintain a majority.
WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show
Republicans were very split on this. Democrats were already celebrating the prospective loss of this bill. But somehow Johnson cobbled everyone together.
For all the talk about how Johnson is “inexperienced” at this position and simply a “stand-in” for Trump, Johnson is actually quite good at this. He’s very good at this.
The reality is that Johnson is also significantly more conservative on pretty much every policy issue that any Speaker of the House has been since Newt Gingrich.
Originally on Tuesday night, it appeared that the vote was going to go down to defeat, and Democrats were preemptively celebrating.
But Johnson made it happen. He put out a statement after the passage of the budget. His statement, along with Steve Scalise and the House GOP chairwoman, Lisa McClain, said:
Today House Republicans move Congress closer, delivering on President Trump’s America first agenda, not just parts of it. This momentum will grow as we work with our committee chairs and Senate Republicans to determine the best policies within their respective jurisdictions to meet budgetary targets. We have full confidence in their ability to chart the best path forward. While there is still much more to do, we are determined to send a bill to President Trump’s desk that secures our border, keeps taxes low for families and job creators, restores American energy dominance, strengthens America’s standing on the world stage, and makes government work more effectively for all Americans.
Speaker Johnson’s job is exceptionally difficult. There is no American consensus on restructuring the entitlement programs that are the systemic drivers of our national debt.
I wish reality were not what it is, but that is the case. It is a fundamental reality that Trump understands, which is why he and JD Vance ran on the prospect of never touching Social Security and Medicare, among other gigantic entitlement programs.
Those are systemic drivers of the national debt. They’re not touching them because they understand the American people don’t want them touched.
Let’s be clear about what’s going to happen to America fiscally over the course of the next 10 years. America is going to lurch toward precisely the same sorts of austerity measures that Europe had to put in place because the United States is heading toward national bankruptcy.
We are. That’s just where we are at.
Here’s what you can do about that. You can push outsized growth. You can try to outgrow the debt. You can essentially grow the economy so fast that as a percentage of GDP, the national debt shrinks.
Or you can radically increase taxes, which is going to sink the American economy and probably won’t solve the national debt. You can’t really tax your way out of a $37 trillion national debt right now. And it’s going to get much larger over the coming years.
Or you could restructure the entitlements. The American people and their elected congresspeople always forever prefer to kick that can down the road.
This budget is probably the best thing that can be done with what people are willing to do.
Now it goes to the Senate. The Senate has already voted for a couple of different bills that cover much of this area. There’s going to be a plan to reconcile the Senate with the House bills, try and come up with some sort of workable compromise, and then go back to the Houses, the respective Houses, for a revote.
For all the talk about how there was going to be an ineffective Republican majority in the House, Speaker Johnson has proved that wrong. He’s played this about as well as you can possibly play an incredibly difficult hand.
And in the Senate, I believe that the majority leader, Senator John Thune, is going to do a good job of working with Speaker Johnson to come up with a bill that Trump will sign and that is going to provide some quiescence to the markets.
It is going to make people feel as though the tax regime is not going to change any time in the near future, which is a good way of getting people to feel comfortable in their investments.
It is a triumph for Johnson and for Trump to get this budget passed through such a narrowly divided Congress.
Give credit where credit is due: Against heavy odds, Johnson pulled it off.
[#item_full_content]
[[{“value”:”
While President Trump’s winning streak continues, it doesn’t just continue because of President Trump.
It is also continuing because Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is doing an extraordinary job in the House, where he has an unbelievably slim margin. His margin is somewhere between one and three votes, depending on who actually shows up for the vote.
Yet, somehow, he was capable of pushing through a gigantic House budget bill on Tuesday night.
Now, there are all sorts of problems with these gigantic bills. The biggest problem, of course, is that no one in power ever has any interest in serious cuts to what matters in American government. Instead, they sort of shovel those cuts off down the road.
They make commitments to commit.
All of that has just been a regular feature of American government from Republicans and Democrats for as long as I’ve been alive, which is why the line in terms of national debt keeps going up and to the right.
However, this budget bill enshrines the Trump tax cuts of 2017 and provides additional funding to defense, which is absolutely necessary. It provides additional funding to the border, which is necessary, and it pledges to actually take a look at cuts that will offset some of the loss of tax revenue theoretically to be achieved by the Trump tax cuts.
Last night, there was all sorts of consternation about whether House Republicans would be able to get it together. Originally, it seemed as though there were some House Republicans who were going to object to the House budget bill and not get on board with it because they believed that it didn’t cut enough.
A lot of these people were fiscal conservatives. I agree with them on principle, but I also understand that the only way a bill gets done, with Republicans in purple districts and an incredibly slim margin, is with more spending than is wanted.
This was Mike Johnson’s entire proposal as speaker of the House. The reason he pursued one “big, beautiful bill” is because he figured that if all of these issues were separated, they would become separate bills that would never pass because of the many purists and many issues who would be able to sink the boats.
Instead, he wrapped it up in one big ballot to make people vote up or vote down. That was the strategy.
If you don’t like it, then you need to elect more Republicans to Congress. The GOP has a very slim majority. Thus, any bill that comes out is likely to be more “moderate” in its approach than if you had a much larger majority where you could lose a few moderates in the vote and still maintain a majority.
WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show
Republicans were very split on this. Democrats were already celebrating the prospective loss of this bill. But somehow Johnson cobbled everyone together.
For all the talk about how Johnson is “inexperienced” at this position and simply a “stand-in” for Trump, Johnson is actually quite good at this. He’s very good at this.
The reality is that Johnson is also significantly more conservative on pretty much every policy issue that any Speaker of the House has been since Newt Gingrich.
Originally on Tuesday night, it appeared that the vote was going to go down to defeat, and Democrats were preemptively celebrating.
But Johnson made it happen. He put out a statement after the passage of the budget. His statement, along with Steve Scalise and the House GOP chairwoman, Lisa McClain, said:
Today House Republicans move Congress closer, delivering on President Trump’s America first agenda, not just parts of it. This momentum will grow as we work with our committee chairs and Senate Republicans to determine the best policies within their respective jurisdictions to meet budgetary targets. We have full confidence in their ability to chart the best path forward. While there is still much more to do, we are determined to send a bill to President Trump’s desk that secures our border, keeps taxes low for families and job creators, restores American energy dominance, strengthens America’s standing on the world stage, and makes government work more effectively for all Americans.
Speaker Johnson’s job is exceptionally difficult. There is no American consensus on restructuring the entitlement programs that are the systemic drivers of our national debt.
I wish reality were not what it is, but that is the case. It is a fundamental reality that Trump understands, which is why he and JD Vance ran on the prospect of never touching Social Security and Medicare, among other gigantic entitlement programs.
Those are systemic drivers of the national debt. They’re not touching them because they understand the American people don’t want them touched.
Let’s be clear about what’s going to happen to America fiscally over the course of the next 10 years. America is going to lurch toward precisely the same sorts of austerity measures that Europe had to put in place because the United States is heading toward national bankruptcy.
We are. That’s just where we are at.
Here’s what you can do about that. You can push outsized growth. You can try to outgrow the debt. You can essentially grow the economy so fast that as a percentage of GDP, the national debt shrinks.
Or you can radically increase taxes, which is going to sink the American economy and probably won’t solve the national debt. You can’t really tax your way out of a $37 trillion national debt right now. And it’s going to get much larger over the coming years.
Or you could restructure the entitlements. The American people and their elected congresspeople always forever prefer to kick that can down the road.
This budget is probably the best thing that can be done with what people are willing to do.
Now it goes to the Senate. The Senate has already voted for a couple of different bills that cover much of this area. There’s going to be a plan to reconcile the Senate with the House bills, try and come up with some sort of workable compromise, and then go back to the Houses, the respective Houses, for a revote.
For all the talk about how there was going to be an ineffective Republican majority in the House, Speaker Johnson has proved that wrong. He’s played this about as well as you can possibly play an incredibly difficult hand.
And in the Senate, I believe that the majority leader, Senator John Thune, is going to do a good job of working with Speaker Johnson to come up with a bill that Trump will sign and that is going to provide some quiescence to the markets.
It is going to make people feel as though the tax regime is not going to change any time in the near future, which is a good way of getting people to feel comfortable in their investments.
It is a triumph for Johnson and for Trump to get this budget passed through such a narrowly divided Congress.
Give credit where credit is due: Against heavy odds, Johnson pulled it off.
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