Props to Senate Majority Leader John Thune for keeping President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill moving ahead, herding cats as masterfully as Speaker Mike Johnson did in the House.
The latest snag: The Senate parliamentarian ruling that multiple provisions, including key Medicaid reforms, don’t qualify for filibuster-avoiding “reconciliation” status — which means the bill would need seven or more Democratic votes to pass.
Since Dems are united in opposition, that’s a no-go.
Thune believes some deft rewrites can fix most of the problems; we certainly hope he can save the “provider tax” reforms, which really ought to qualify because they’re all about stopping states from gaming the system to score tens of billions extra in federal funding.
He’s also worked out compromises on everything from expanding the SALT deduction to protecting rural hospital — all with an eye on ensuring they don’t create a logjam by changing too drastically from the House-passed version, forcing members to stay in Washington until a final bill is passed.
The goal remains getting the final bill done before Congress breaks for the July 4 holiday, even as Democrats work every angle to gum up the works — and most of the media root for a train wreck.
The bottom line remains the same: Republicans must pass the core bill, which 1) prevents a massive, economy-stalling tax hike; 2) adds funding for border enforcement and other popular Trump priorities; and 3) ensures the nation won’t face another debt-limit crisis through next year.
If the GOP can’t get all that done, it’s likely facing a bloodbath in 2026 — and quite possibly another one in 2028.
Getting it done may well require some House Republicans to make some tough choices — e.g., give ground on SALT or on a faster phaseout of Democrats’ various green-energy subsidies.
Happily, the president is back in town and ready to back up Thune and Johnson throughout the final push, so any Republican threatening to blow up the whole deal will face the political equivalent of one of those bunker-busters that just took out Iran’s nuclear program.