“One Big Beautiful Bill…”

In order to keep the 2017 tax cuts from expiring, to legislate further tax cuts and whatever else Trump had in mind while campaigning it will be necessary for Republicans to stick together, but there are already dissenters in the fold, additionally, weak-kneed Republicans are caving to leftist demands. The following are excerpts from an opinion piece in Friday’s Wall Street Journal, written by Kimberly Strassel.

The current House GOP standoff boils down to the usual: to spend or not to spend. To date, the spenders-or as the media charitably describes them, the “moderates”-have run the table. Their initial demands required House leaders to set a pathetic target of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years, allowing the Joe Biden spending boom to stand and grow. They then proceeded to throw up roadblock after roadblock in the way of even that $1.5 trillion mark. Congress remains littered with their red lines: No reigning in of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. No messing with prior “infrastructure” spending. No serious overhaul of food assistance. No starting any real reform until 2029, so that lawmakers have time to roll it back.

To add injury to entitlement, they are demanding that any money saved-over their objections-be earmarked for their voters. Having already won a promise that they’ll get a reprieve from today’s $10,000 cap on deductibility of state and local taxes, no amount will suffice. Double isn’t good enough. Nor is triple or quadruple. New York Republicans suggested this week that they might consider voting for a GOP bill that spares the country $4.5 trillion in tax hikes-but only if their constituents are allowed to deduct $80,000 worth of state and local taxes from their federal returns.

Most Americans don’t even earn $80,000.

But the cheek that tipped conservative frustration into fury was Wednesday’s additional demand from 14 “moderates”-on top of their SALT extortion, on top of their reform roadblocks-to continue spending with abandon on Joe Biden’s Green New Deal…these intraparty chasms may now be too wide to be bridged, which means the more likely path to a bill-if one even remains-is for one side to bend. Only one figure in the party has the political muscle to force such an outcome. The president has kept deliberately quiet about the state of negotiations and his own preferences. The assumption was always that he’d engage at the end, when the time came to knock heads into line over final outstanding questions. Only where does he now come down?

Why should the president have even weathered the political storm that came from stating important truths-Medicaid has a lot of waste and fraud, work requirements should accompany welfare, the climate agenda is punishing American businesses and consumers-if Republicans in Congress ultimately surrender to the left’s talking points? For Mr. Trump, standing his ground is the obvious course, especially because voters’ belief that he would do what he says is what won him the office.

Either way, enter Mr. Trump. The party will need some pushing to get this done. Watch carefully in what direction Mr. Trump shoves.”