Hancock & Kelley: Kehoe's special session, The Dome in financial peril
ST. LOUIS – It was another Sunday morning of sometimes heated but always civil political debate on Hancock and Kelley for Sunday, June 1, 2025.
Republican consultant John Hancock and Democratic consultant Michael Kelley discussed the following topics:
Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe is bringing lawmakers back to Jefferson City for a special session to consider spending tens of millions of dollars on tornado relief in St. Louis, and much more to keep the Chiefs and Royals from moving to Kansas. Will either or both get done?
St. Louis' own domed stadium, the home of the Battlehawks, is in financial peril. Is it worth saving?
Things are so out of control at St. Louis County Animal Control that the shelter has lost its license.
A penny for your thoughts? President Donald Trump wants to do away with the U.S. penny.
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Los Angeles Times
14 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Trump pushes a July 4th deadline for big tax bill as senators dig in
WASHINGTON — President Trump wants his 'big, beautiful' bill of tax breaks and spending cuts on his desk to be signed into law by the Fourth of July, and he's pushing the slow-rolling Senate to make it happen sooner rather than later. Trump met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune at the White House early this week and has been dialing senators for one-on-one chats, using both the carrot and stick to nudge, badger and encourage them to act. But it's still a long road ahead for the 1,000-page-plus package. 'His question to me was, How do you think the bill's going to go in the Senate?' Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said about his call with Trump. 'Do you think there's going to be problems?' It's a potentially tumultuous three-week sprint for senators preparing to put their own imprint on the massive Republican package that cleared the House late last month by a single vote. The senators have been meeting for weeks behind closed doors, including as they returned to Washington late Monday, to revise the package ahead of what is expected to be a similarly narrow vote in the Senate. 'Passing THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL is a Historic Opportunity to turn our Country around,' Trump posted on social media. He urged them Monday 'to work as fast as they can to get this Bill to MY DESK before the Fourth of JULY.' Thune, like House Speaker Mike Johnson, has few votes to spare from the Senate's slim, 53-seat GOP majority. Democrats are waging an all-out political assault on GOP proposals to cut Medicaid, food stamps and green energy investments to help pay for more than $4.5 trillion in tax cuts — with many lawmakers being hammered at boisterous town halls back home. 'It'd be nice if we could have everybody on board to do it, but, you know, individual members are going to stake out their positions,' Thune said Tuesday. 'But in the end, we have to succeed. Failure's not an option. We've got to get to 51. So we'll figure out the path forward to do that over the next couple of weeks.' At its core, the package seeks to extend the tax cuts approved in 2017, during Trump's first term at the White House, and add new ones the presidents campaigned on, including no taxes on tips and others. It also includes a massive build-up of $350 billion for border security, deportations and national security. To defray the lost tax revenue to the government and avoid piling onto the nation's $36 trillion debt load, Republicans want reduce federal spending by imposing work requirements for some Americans who rely on government safety net services. Estimates are 8.6 million people would no longer have health care and nearly 4 million would lose Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits, known as SNAP. The package also would raise the nation's debt limit by $4 trillion to allow more borrowing to pay the bills. Senate Democratic Leader Charles E. Schumer said Trump's bill 'is ugly to its very core.' Schumer said Tuesday it's a 'lie' that the cuts won't hurt Americans. 'Behind the smoke and mirrors lies a cruel and draconian truth: tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy paid for by gutting health care for millions of Americans,' said the New York senator. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is expected to soon provide an overall analysis of the package's impacts on the government balance sheets, particular its rising annual deficits. But Republicans are ready to blast those findings from the congressional scorekeeper as flawed. Trump Tuesday switched to tougher tactics, deriding the holdout Republican senators to get on board. The president laid into Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the libertarian-leaning deficit hawk who has made a career of arguing against government spending. Paul wants the package's $4 trillion increase to the debt ceiling out of the bill. 'Rand votes NO on everything, but never has any practical or constructive ideas. His ideas are actually crazy (losers!).' Trump posted. The July 4th deadline is not only aspirational for the president, it's all but mandatory for his Treasury Department. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned Congress that the nation will run out of money to pay its bills if the debt ceiling, now at $36 trillion, is not lifted by mid-July or early August to allow more borrowing. Bessent has also been meeting behind closed doors with senators and GOP leadership. Thune acknowledged Tuesday that lifting the debt ceiling is not up for debate. 'It's got to be done,' the South Dakota senator said. The road ahead is also a test for Thune who, like Johnson, is a newer leader in Congress and among the many Republicans adjusting their own priorities with Trump's return to the White House. While Johnson has warned against massive changes to the package, Thune faces demands from his senators for adjustments. To make most of the tax cuts permanent — particularly the business tax breaks that are the Senate priorities — senators may shave some of Trump's proposed new tax breaks on automobile loans or overtime pay, which are policies less prized by some senators. There are also discussions about altering the $40,000 cap that the House proposed for state and local deductions, known as SALT, which are important to lawmakers in high-tax New York, California and other states, but less so among GOP senators. 'We're having all those discussions,' said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., another key voice in the debate. Hawley is a among a group of senators, including Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who have raised concerns about the Medicaid changes that could boot people from health insurance. A potential copay of up to $35 for Medicaid services that was part of the House package, as well as a termination of a provider tax that many states rely on to help fund rural hospitals, have also raised concerns. 'The best way to not be accused of cutting Medicaid is to not cut Medicaid,' Hawley said. Collins said she is reviewing the details. There's also a House provision that would allow the auction of spectrum bandwidth that some senators oppose. Mascaro and Jalonick write for the Associated Press. AP writer Matt Brown contributed to this report.
CNBC
19 minutes ago
- CNBC
Trump slams GOP Sen. Rand Paul for opposing 'big, beautiful bill' due to $5 trillion debt ceiling hike
President Donald Trump on Tuesday blasted Sen. Rand Paul after the Kentucky Republican criticized the massive Trump-backed budget bill over its provision to raise the debt ceiling by trillions of dollars. Paul, a staunch libertarian, said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" that he is "just not open to supporting $5 trillion ... in debt ceiling increase" that the Senate's version of the bill currently includes. Trump lashed out soon after, writing on Truth Social that the senator "has very little understanding" of the budget plan that the president has dubbed the "one big, beautiful bill." Trump claimed Paul does not grasp that the bill, which includes a slew of tax and spending cuts but is projected to significantly widen national deficits, will spur "tremendous GROWTH." "He loves voting 'NO' on everything, he thinks it's good politics, but it's not," Trump said of the senator. In a follow-up post, Trump attacked Paul in more personal terms. He "never has any practical or constructive ideas," Trump wrote, adding, "His ideas are actually crazy (losers!). The people of Kentucky can't stand him. This is a BIG GROWTH BILL!" A spokesperson for Paul's Senate office did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Trump's posts. The president's heated reaction is part of a broader pressure campaign to convince Republican holdouts to vote for the massive bill, the centerpiece of Trump's domestic policy agenda. The budget package narrowly passed by the House last month would extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts, and add new exemptions on workers' tips and overtime, seniors' Social Security and more. It would also impose work requirements for the government-run health insurance program Medicaid, and it would reform the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, that millions of low-income Americans rely upon. The version of the bill that passed the House in late May would also increase the U.S. debt limit by $4 trillion. The version currently pending in the Senate would hike the debt ceiling even more, $5 trillion total. The debt ceiling increase is "the main thing that I object to," Paul said Tuesday on CNBC. Setting the ceiling at $5 trillion is "an indication that we'll borrow that much," he said. "It's an indication that will put the debt on the back burner." "I do want the tax cuts. I want them to be permanent. I'm throwing a lot of spending cuts, but I'll compromise and get as much as I can," he said. "I'm just not going to take responsibility for the debt," said Paul. The bill is moving through Congress via the reconciliation process, which would enable to the 53-47 Republican Senate majority to bypass the traditional 60-vote threshold and approve the bill without any Democratic support. But that also means that Republicans can only afford to lose three votes in the chamber. Paul said Sunday that he believes there are currently four Republicans opposed to the package as it stands. But if the debt ceiling hike were cut from the bill, Paul said, then he would vote for it. "I would be very surprised if the bill, at least, is not modified in a good direction," he told CBS' "Face the Nation."
San Francisco Chronicle
23 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump pushes a July 4th deadline for big tax bill as senators dig in
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump wants his 'big, beautiful' bill of tax breaks and spending cuts on his desk to be singed into law by the Fourth of July, and he's pushing the slow-rolling Senate to make it happen sooner rather than later. Trump met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune at the White House early this week and has been dialing senators for one-on-one chats, using both the carrot and stick to nudge, badger and encourage them to act. But it's still a long road ahead for the 1,000-page-plus package. 'His question to me was, How do you think the bill's going to go in the Senate?' Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said about his call with Trump. 'Do you think there's going to be problems?' It's a potentially tumultuous three-week sprint for senators preparing to put their own imprint on the massive Republican package that cleared the House late last month by a single vote. The senators have been meeting for weeks behind closed doors, including as they returned to Washington late Monday, to revise the package ahead of what is expected to be a similarly narrow vote in the Senate. 'Passing THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL is a Historic Opportunity to turn our Country around,' Trump posted on social media. He urged them Monday 'to work as fast as they can to get this Bill to MY DESK before the Fourth of JULY.' Thune, like House Speaker Mike Johnson, has few votes to spare from the Senate's slim, 53-seat GOP majority. Democrats are waging an all-out political assault on GOP proposals to cut Medicaid, food stamps and green energy investments to help pay for more than $4.5 trillion in tax cuts — with many lawmakers being hammered at boisterous town halls back home. 'It'd be nice if we could have everybody on board to do it, but, you know, individual members are going to stake out their positions,' Thune said Tuesday. 'But in the end, we have to succeed. Failure's not an option. We've got to get to 51. So we'll figure out the path forward to do that over the next couple of weeks.' At its core, the package seeks to extend the tax cuts approved in 2017, during Trump's first term at the White House, and add new ones the presidents campaigned on, including no taxes on tips and others. It also includes a massive build-up of $350 billion for border security, deportations and national security. To defray the lost tax revenue to the government and avoid piling onto the nation's $36 trillion debt load, Republicans want reduce federal spending by imposing work requirements for some Americans who rely on government safety net services. Estimates are 8.6 million people would no longer have health care and nearly 4 million would lose Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits, known as SNAP. The package also would raise the nation's debt limit by $4 trillion to allow more borrowing to pay the bills. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump's bill "is ugly to its very core.' Schumer said Tuesday it's a 'lie' that the cuts won't hurt Americans. 'Behind the smoke and mirrors lies a cruel and draconian truth: tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy paid for by gutting health care for millions of Americans," said the New York senator. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is expected to soon provide an overall analysis of the package's impacts on the government balance sheets, particular its rising annual deficits. But Republicans are ready to blast those findings from the congressional scorekeeper as flawed. Trump Tuesday switched to tougher tactics, deriding the holdout Republican senators to get on board. The president laid into Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the libertarian-leaning deficit hawk who has made a career of arguing against government spending. Paul wants the package's $4 trillion increase to the debt ceiling out of the bill. 'Rand votes NO on everything, but never has any practical or constructive ideas. His ideas are actually crazy (losers!).' Trump posted. The July 4th deadline is not only aspirational for the president, it's all but mandatory for his Treasury Department. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned Congress that the nation will run out of money to pay its bills if the debt ceiling, now at $36 trillion, is not lifted by mid-July or early August to allow more borrowing. Bessent has also been meeting behind closed doors with senators and GOP leadership. Thune acknowledged Tuesday that lifting the debt ceiling is not up for debate. 'It's got to be done,' the South Dakota senator said. The road ahead is also a test for Thune who, like Johnson, is a newer leader in Congress and among the many Republicans adjusting their own priorities with Trump's return to the White House. While Johnson has warned against massive changes to the package, Thune faces demands from his senators for adjustments. To make most of the tax cuts permanent — particularly the business tax breaks that are the Senate priorities — senators may shave some of Trump's proposed new tax breaks on automobile loans or overtime pay, which are policies less prized by some senators. There are also discussions about altering the $40,000 cap that the House proposed for state and local deductions, known as SALT, which are important to lawmakers in high-tax New York, California and other states, but less so among GOP senators. 'We're having all those discussions,' said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., another key voice in the debate. Hawley is a among a group of senators, including Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who have raised concerns about the Medicaid changes that could boot people from health insurance. A potential copay of up to $35 for Medicaid services that was part of the House package, as well as a termination of a provider tax that many states rely on to help fund rural hospitals, have also raised concerns. 'The best way to not be accused of cutting Medicaid is to not cut Medicaid,' Hawley said. There's also a House provision that would allow the auction of spectrum bandwidth that some senators oppose.
