Fox host unconvinced by Johnson’s plan to cooperate with Trump’s 'big, beautiful bill'

05 January

Republican lawmakers appear to be split on how to pass the sweeping reconciliation bill that would include Donald Trump's main priorities for his second administration.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo during a Sunday morning interview that he is aiming to have what the president-elect calls "one 'big, beautiful bill' to sign by May," according to Mediaite.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) during separate interviews on Sunday voiced their preference of passing the legislation in two parts.

Additionally, ABC News notes that the hard-right "House Freedom Caucus has endorsed a two-step plan rather than Trump's single bill, and the group of hard-liners may stand in the way of Trump’s desires."

Speaking with Johnson, Bartiromo asked, "Have you spoken with President Trump about what he prefers? Does he want one large reconciliation package to include border security, deportations as well as tax extensions? Or does he want two, as Senator Lindsey Graham has been working on?"

The speaker replied, "He and I have talked about this quite a bit, as you might imagine, over the last few months, determining the pros and cons of the two different strategies. I respect Lindsey Graham and all my friends who kind of preferred a two-step strategy. The idea would be get something done on the border and maybe defense spending right out of the blocks or very quickly and what we would call a skinny reconciliation bill and then do the rest of it in a larger chunk later."

The GOP leader continued, "But I think at the end of the day, President Trump is going to prefer, as he likes to say, one big, beautiful bill. And there’s a lot of merit to that because we can put it all together – one big up or down vote – which can save the country quite literally because there are so many elements to it. And it’ll give us a little bit more time to negotiate that and get it right.

Bartiromo replied, "So if you are doing everything or most of the priorities in one big beautiful bill, as you say, that includes what? Walk us through what that would include."

Johnson explained that the bill covers three Trump priorities: the border, energy, and taxes.

The right-wing host suggested that such a hefty bill could potentially exclude some GOP lawmakers.

Johnson disagreed, adding, "Well, actually, that’s the benefit of doing it all together, because no one’s going to love every element of a large package like that. But there will be enough elements in there to pull everyone along. They’ll be able to justify not getting all of their preferences on some of their big issues because there’ll be so many other very important pieces to that one piece of legislation. So I think keeping it together is how we’ll actually get it done, and there’s some real value to that."

Watch Mediaite's video below or at this link.

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