Republicans expose their warped priorities with desperate last-minute play: analysis

20 July

House Speaker Mike Johnson shakes hands with President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C., July 4, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis

Republican leaders in Congress are hoping to pull off a desperate, last-minute spending bill, and according to a new breakdown from MS NOW, the largely war-focused funding makes the party's "priorities horribly clear."

Earlier this week, the budget framework, totalling around $95 billion, emerged from committee to a divided reaction among House and Senate Republicans, with some taking issue with its lack of spending cuts to offset the $73 billion it sets aside for military spending, most of which would be for the Iran war. This uncertainty prompted what MS NOW's Hayes Brown called a "scolding" from House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican.

"When did you ever pay for a war? A lot of this is military expenses aimed at that war,” Cole said. “The point is that play’s been called. It’s time to put up or shut up.”

This take from Cole, Brown argued, was telling of the "problematic message" the GOP is contending with heading into the 2026 midterms.

"There’s a lot to unpack in Cole’s admonition," Brown wrote. "First and foremost, his finger-wagging underscores the problematic message Republicans are sending ahead of the midterms: The country can’t afford to help the poor and needy — but there’s always more money for war, even pointless wars of choice such as the one President Donald Trump has waged against Tehran."

He continued: "Look at what the GOP prioritized in the first two reconciliation bills. The most recent one funded immigration enforcement, making sure there was enough funding to break up communities, detain people with no criminal record and kick them out of the country as quickly as possible. The White House has framed this crackdown on immigration as part of a supposed 'war' on the Southern border, and GOP lawmakers made damn sure to fund it."

The other big Republican reconciliation bill, Brown explained, was 2025's Big Beautiful Bill, which was largely focused on "taking from the poor to give to the rich," with tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans funded by further cuts to things like Medicaid and food assistance programs.

"Pass or fail, this reconciliation bill is what the GOP has decided is its priority before the party asks voters to keep them in power in November," Brown concluded. "A bill that pays for a deeply unpopular war, sets aside money to help the farmers that have been hurt by this war and Trump’s tariffs and, if Trump has his way, makes it harder for Americans to vote. It will do nothing for Republican lawmakers facing questions about affordability, nothing about the real problems that their constituents face and nothing that shows any regard for their lives."

From Your Site Articles