Trump has proved he can work with Congress. He should try it again.

Washington Post

23-05-2025

In the past week, as never before, President Donald Trump showed mastery of the legislative process. On Tuesday, when his gargantuan tax bill was stalled, he went to Capitol Hill to deliver a double-barreled message. To the fiscal hawks, he said not to 'f--- around with Medicaid.' To blue-state Republicans, he warned against holding out for further increases in caps on state and local tax (SALT) deductions.
Again and again, to advance his 'big, beautiful' bill, Trump capitalized on his acolytes' love and fear. Opposing the bill would be 'the ultimate betrayal,' the White House warned Wednesday morning, as Trump's political advisers threatened to work for primary challengers against anyone voting no. That afternoon, Trump invited on-the-fence members of the Freedom Caucus to the White House. One of them, Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Missouri), said afterward that 'it was amazing to see him in action.'
Burlison wound up supporting the bill. So did all but three House Republicans. It passed by one vote on Thursday morning.
This does nothing to alter the fact that the legislation, as it stands, would drastically enlarge America's already enormous debt to 129 percent of gross domestic product, and that this would be disastrous for the economy and the dollar. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that Trump, when pressed, is able to act via Congress rather than executive order. He should endeavor to choose this path more often.
The president is savvier about working the Hill today than he was eight years ago. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) says Trump has been 'much more engaged in directing what happens than the first time because he and the leadership of Congress in 2017 were not seeing eye-to-eye.' Trump made repealing Obamacare his first legislative priority, for example, only because Congress wanted him to.
By now, most Trump antagonists have retired from politics and the GOP is more MAGA than ever. But the president is also coordinating better with party leaders. He no longer agrees to requests from rank-and-file members that undermine delicate negotiations with party leaders.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) did the nitty-gritty work of shepherding the tax bill despite having the smallest House majority in nearly a century. He said it was like 'crossing over the Grand Canyon on a piece of dental floss.' After the House Budget Committee blocked the bill last Friday, Johnson worked all weekend to persuade four deficit hawks to change their votes to 'present' so it could advance to the floor Sunday night.
In the following days, working in concert with Trump, Johnson continued to hammer out compromises. He revised the bill's work requirements for Medicaid recipients so that they would kick in at the end of 2026 rather than 2029. And he agreed to raise the cap for SALT deductions to $40,000 for people making up to $500,000 a year. (Under current law, the cap is $10,000 for everyone.)
The hard, sometimes dirty, work of legislating might not be the easiest way to govern, but it is the most legitimate. Executive orders can be easily rescinded by future presidents or overturned by the courts. Laws are far more likely to endure. And the horse trading that's required to secure majorities ensures that policy reflects the broadest possible array of interests. Because all members of the House must stand for reelection every other year, they are more directly accountable to the people for votes they take than a president is — especially a president who will never again appear on a ballot.
Too often, Trump bypasses or otherwise short-circuits the House and Senate, despite his party's majorities. Rather than turn out executive orders and social media posts unilaterally dictating policy, he should more often work toward meaningful legislation. Of course, he still has not pushed his tax bill over the finish line.
It next moves to the Senate, where Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) says his members want to leave their 'imprint.' Thune can afford to lose the support of only three GOP senators. Some want deeper cuts in Medicaid, while others demand no cuts at all. Republican senators care little about SALT deductions, because they mainly affect blue states.
Ideally, the Senate will improve on the bill by scaling back the tax cuts and identifying additional spending cuts. The House bill is projected to grow the country's $36.2 trillion national debt by more than $2.5 trillion, not counting interest payments. If temporary provisions now set to expire in four years are extended, the cost could rise above $5 trillion.
As he voted no, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) called the bill a ticking debt bomb. 'We're not rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic,' he said on the House floor. 'We're putting coal in the boiler and setting a course for the iceberg.'
Massie isn't wrong. At a minimum, the Senate should make the final package less fiscally irresponsible. This is how the legislative process is supposed to work.