The Honeymoon is Over: The GOP Goes to War ... with Itself

The GOP went to war with itself this week over the 1,500+ page omnibus bill that did everything from raise pay for lawmakers to expanding plandemic powers and granting censorship authority. Republicans could’ve passed a simple CR, since the current debt ceiling expires in June, but party leaders are hell-bent on mucking it up.

They were able to whittle the bill from 15,00+ pages to 115, but they didn’t whittle down the billions in deficit spending or the $4 trillion in additional debt from suspending the limit. (Read it here; the bill failed earlier this evening.) It’s not the number of pages but what is written on the pages that matter. POTUS-Elect wanted it passed now, on Biden’s watch, rather than deal with it next year on his, and thought he could use it for leverage in June when the limit expires.

A chunk of Republican lawmakers opposed this before it was ultimately voted down with 38 GOP lawmakers voting against. The most vociferous among them, stalwart Chip Roy (R-TX), took to the House floor earlier today and blasted the spending still buried within the bill. Trump in turn blasted Roy on Truth Social, accusing him of “obstructionism.”

Trump didn’t call for primaries of the Republicans who are blocking his cabinet nominations, or for Speaker Mike Johnson, who delivered this garbage bill and led the House into this mess, but for Roy for opposing suspending the debt limit and for the increasing spending.

Suspending the debt ceiling isn’t a conservative position. It’s not even a fiscally advantageous one. All it is does is allow Congress to spend more in exchange for the mirage of temporary peace.

Roy’s biggest sin isn’t that he’s a fiscal conservative and opposes raising the debt ceiling, a position that Trump supports, although that’s part of it. His biggest sin is that he endorsed Ron DeSantis in the primary, which is less worse than verbatim calling Trump “Hitler,” except in modern Republican politics. Your primary position last spring is what determines your credibility nowadays, not your actual voting record or publicly held positions. This isn’t a way to build a stronger country nor is it a way to maintain a healthy coalition of people who all view the President-Elect through different lenses. We all support free and fair elections, of which our primary is part. We all voted for Trump in the general, three times. We aren’t communists who oppose elections and don’t apologize to anyone who would demand you do so, either.

Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) threw down gauntlet on X:

So far, only Vance and Musk have properly laid the blame at the feet of Democrats, who voted nearly unanimously against the second bill. No matter what, this bill wasn’t passing.

You got the first look today at whether or not Congress will accept DOGE's recommendations with this fight. They haven’t had to fight like this — or been pressured to do so — since the tea party days, and now we have the addition of the X megaphone.

I’ll be frank with you — this austerity fight is going to be an absolute bitch. There are a lot politicians and their pick-me influencers who rave over Javier Milei but what today showed is that when the rubber hits the road, many on them still cave. This fight only gets harder from here. Trump will get blasted by the left and its media for cutting spending and reducing government and will be blamed for the pain before the benefits are felt. As I said on air earlier today, the media has already started its division tactics by trying to put Trump and Musk at odds with one another.

And this is just December, barely a month after the election. Just wait until January.

It’s not a job for the weak, but if anyone could do it and not care about public opinion, it’s Trump. He’s got six months before the midterm election cycle starts and a four-year limit. He has a remarkable opportunity to do what every Republican has promised and failed to do. What I want this Christmas is for him to succeed and for the coalition to stay focused and unified.

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