House Republicans, unable to come to a consensus on a “big, beautiful bill” that they hope would implement a variety of items on President Donald Trump’s wishlist. They’re looking to Trump for guidance, but much to their frustration, he isn’t weighing in, NOTUS reported Tuesday.
“It’d be really helpful if the president would be more specific about what he wants in a reconciliation bill,” one senior GOP lawmaker told NOTUS. “Republicans want to enact his agenda, but we’re trying to read tea leaves and guess what he wants.”
House Republicans are trying to agree on tax cuts, energy, and border policy, “wasting weeks squabbling over even the most basic steps,” write NOTUS’ Reese Gorman and Ursula Perano, describing the lawmakers as “paralyzed.”
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“I’m not sure the president’s team is accurately reporting to him how bad the situation will be for his tax cuts agenda if it’s decoupled from border funding and spending cuts,” a senior GOP aide told NOTUS. “The votes simply won’t be there for what needs to get done on tax.”
While they understand what policies Trump wants, lawmakers are more lost on spending cuts, one lawmaker told NOTUS. Some conservatives want to cut government spending, whereas others do not.
“He may need to drop the hammer on Freedom Caucus people,” a GOP member said, referring to the most conservative faction of the House.
A White House official put the blame on lawmakers. “They’re trying to use their inability to get on the same page to have us resolve their issues,” the White House official said. “And by the way, they can’t get on the same page because there’s a group of people who want to do the presidents [sic] agenda and there’s a group of people who don’t want to do presidents [sic] agenda.”
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For now, Republicans are at a standstill. “Just make a play call and stick with it,” one GOP lawmaker said.