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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Musk-Trump Feud: 5 Things To Watch For
President Donald Trump, left, and Elon Musk. Credit - Alex Wroblewski and Allison Robbert—AFP via Getty Images This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME's politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox. Like so many pieces of President Donald Trump's self-created reality, the key he handed to fellow billionaire and government hater Elon Musk was oversized and appeared to be coated with gold coloration. That Potemkin moment was merely one week ago today. Indeed, last Friday, Trump held the unusual send-off party for an adviser tasked with helping him destroy the spine of the federal workforce and a patron to his rise to power. Fast forward a week, and Trump has all but declared war on his one-time ally, lobbing threats to cancel federal contracts for everything from clean-energy cars, shuttles into the heavens, and access to satellite orbits. In turn, Musk kept pushing Republicans on the Hill to reject Trump's ambitious domestic policy agenda while throwing open the doors to conspiracy theories. The back-and-forth brinksmanship captivated Washington as the week headed toward its end. Both parties seemed to understand their ownership of the news cycle, and it's entirely possible that most of this spat was as scripted as a professional-wrestling beef. 'One thing's for sure,' Musk posted on X, 'it ain't boring!' That doesn't make it any less reckless. Here are five things to watch as this story unfolds. As catty as this feud has been, it is ultimately a huge distraction from Trump's agenda. The more time spent on a personality clash between this pair of mercurial iconoclasts, the less time is being dedicated to getting Trump's pending domestic agenda across the finish line. This is, to be clear, a fight that could leave both men empty handed. Trump is heading to his country club in New Jersey for the weekend, away from the White House and the churn of that campus. That may give Trump time to cool to a simmer—or to boil over if he's left alone with his DVR, social media feeds, and cell phone that gives him a constant hum of agitation. Establishment Republicans fear the window for a once-an-administration legislative reach is closing fast. The White House set a Memorial Day deadline for House passage and just barely got there. Administration officials are now looking at a July 4 target for the Senate following suit. The sooner Trump can quiet his frustrations, the better the odds of snagging the brass ring. Once Musk suggested—without evidence—that Trump is somehow implicated in the sex-trafficking criminality tied to the late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, there really was no telling where this goes next. The mega-rich like Musk don't exactly have a huge degree of self-awareness or self-control. Musk knows he is already under Trump's skin, and any plays to exploit Trump's insecurities don't exactly take terrible imagination. That's why this stands to go further sideways in a big way. Musk is not exactly known for keeping the savviest of political minds at his table. Unlike other deep-pocketed patrons, Musk does not have an army of consultants and so-called donor-advisers at the ready. But he does have the ear of some in Trump's inner circle, especially Donald Trump Jr. and Vice President J.D. Vance. If the White House is looking for an off-ramp, it might avail itself of those two lesser-appreciated insiders. At its core, this spat began over Musk's criticism of the deficit spending that would accompany the Trump-branded 'One Big Beautiful Bill' that preserves and expands Trump's first-term tax cuts, slices into clean-energy initiatives carried in Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, and boosts spending on border and immigration policing. It's poised to add trillions to the national debt. Musk, a newly converted deficit hawk, has said he sees the red ink as an existential threat. House Republicans powered their first leg of this marathon across the line with the barest of majorities and zero margin for error. Democrats were unified in their opposition, and remain even more so now that they've had time to unpack everything in a 1,000-plus-page bill that also would limit how much courts could rein in Trump and neuter the ability of states to regulate artificial intelligence. In the Senate, things were already iffy. The White House plans to use a procedural trick that allows Senate Republicans to sidestep the typical filibuster rules and pass the legislation with a simple majority. But that's going to require keeping the parameters narrow and keeping the crayons inside the line, especially when it comes to long-term spending obligations. But Senate Republicans also plan to edit the bill text. Add in there Musk's threats of consequences for rubber stamping the House version and it's even murkier where this one goes. As soon as Musk and Trump began bashing one another in earnest on Thursday, the GOP base immediately started agitating in three big directions. In one corner were those bucking up Trump's flank. Former White House strategist Steve Bannon went so far as to suggest the feds look at Musk's immigration status, hinting that the South African-born Musk could find himself on the losing side of a deportation skirmish. In another stood Musk's defenders, who said maybe the world's richest man was onto something when it came to the criticism that sparked the fallout: that the tax cuts in the bill would balloon the nation's already terrifying pile of IOUs. Musk's following remains huge, but he does not have a natural constituency the way other political leaders enjoy. That is why he is such a potent force in electoral efforts, especially among voters who feel no one in elected office has their interests at heart. Add in there the libertarian-minded Silicon Valley set, and it's an unusual coalition that few others could muster. Finally—and this is where so many Republican lawmakers are falling in line—is the corner where there's a last-ditch hope that Trump and Musk can move on, forgetting the pettiness of the last week. The Kiss-and-Make-Up Caucus, as it's been jokingly called among Hill aides, is one with long odds, to be sure. But it's a detente that might allow both billionaires to save face while sparing lawmakers from picking sides, a fraught choice given the passions running high with low-information voters. Johnson, speaking with reporters on Friday, tried to navigate a way out of this mess without any new tinder. 'It's not personal,' Johnson told CNBC on Friday. 'I don't tell my friend Elon how … to build rockets. I wish he wouldn't argue with me on how to craft legislation and pass it.' Since Musk started busting-up the federal government in January, Hill Democrats have been in a listless tilt in search of a strategy. A few fiery speeches have not stopped Musk's march through the federal workforce. Some of the actions have been reversed, either through quiet climbdown or court-ordered pivots. But by and large, Democrats have been left on the sidelines and powerless to query Musk and his deputies, let alone stop them. That may shift now. Musk is clearly no longer a loyalist to Trump, who could still avail himself of claims of executive privilege and block Musk's cooperation with the Hill Democrats. But with Musk openly encouraging Trump's impeachment—which would be a record third time!—there are chances that this escalates in truly history-making ways. Hill Republicans have so far stuck together to protect Trump and, by extension, Musk from any real scrutiny. While much of Trump's Cabinet has bristled over Musk's over-reach into their fiefdoms, they have still dutifully shielded Musk and Co from any real oversight. Through some clever administrative trickery, the White House ensured that Musk was never technically a real federal employee, and even claimed he was never in charge of the office he was actually running. Efforts to haul him in for oversight hit a brick wall. Hill Republicans kept their frustrations buttoned-up and limited to closed-door venting. Now that Musk is untethered, the game may have changed. If the White House wanted to, it could go so far as to encourage Congress to make use of its subpoena power. While that's an unlikely outcome, Musk can no longer be assured of the safe bunker in Washington he had when this second Trump term began. Make sense of what matters in Washington. Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter. Write to Philip Elliott at
Time Magazine
2 days ago
- Business
- Time Magazine
5 Things To Watch As the Trump-Musk Meltdown Proceeds
This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME's politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox. Like so many pieces of President Donald Trump's self-created reality, the key he handed to fellow billionaire and government hater Elon Musk was oversized and appeared to be coated with gold coloration. That Potemkin moment was merely one week ago today. Indeed, last Friday, Trump held the unusual send-off party for an adviser tasked with helping him destroy the spine of the federal workforce and a patron to his rise to power. Fast forward a week, and Trump has all but declared war on his one-time ally, lobbing threats to cancel federal contracts for everything from clean-energy cars, shuttles into the heavens, and access to satellite orbits. In turn, Musk kept pushing Republicans on the Hill to reject Trump's ambitious domestic policy agenda while throwing open the doors to conspiracy theories. The back-and-forth brinksmanship captivated Washington as the week headed toward its end. Both parties seemed to understand their ownership of the news cycle, and it's entirely possible that most of this spat was as scripted as a professional-wrestling beef. 'One thing's for sure,' Musk posted on X, 'it ain't boring!' That doesn't make it any less reckless. Here are five things to watch as this story unfolds. Does Trump Turn the Page? As catty as this feud has been, it is ultimately a huge distraction from Trump's agenda. The more time spent on a personality clash between this pair of mercurial iconoclasts, the less time is being dedicated to getting Trump's pending domestic agenda across the finish line. This is, to be clear, a fight that could leave both men empty handed. Trump is heading to his country club in New Jersey for the weekend, away from the White House and the churn of that campus. That may give Trump time to cool to a simmer—or to boil over if he's left alone with his DVR, social media feeds, and cell phone that gives him a constant hum of agitation. Establishment Republicans fear the window for a once-an-administration legislative reach is closing fast. The White House set a Memorial Day deadline for House passage and just barely got there. Administration officials are now looking at a July 4 target for the Senate following suit. The sooner Trump can quiet his frustrations, the better the odds of snagging the brass ring. Does Musk Escalate? Once Musk suggested—without evidence—that Trump is somehow implicated in the sex-trafficking criminality tied to the late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, there really was no telling where this goes next. The mega-rich like Musk don't exactly have a huge degree of self-awareness or self-control. Musk knows he is already under Trump's skin, and any plays to exploit Trump's insecurities don't exactly take terrible imagination. That's why this stands to go further sideways in a big way. Musk is not exactly known for keeping the savviest of political minds at his table. Unlike other deep-pocketed patrons, Musk does not have an army of consultants and so-called donor-advisers at the ready. But he does have the ear of some in Trump's inner circle, especially Donald Trump Jr. and Vice President J.D. Vance. If the White House is looking for an off-ramp, it might avail itself of those two lesser-appreciated insiders. Is the 'Big Beautiful Bill' In Limbo? At its core, this spat began over Musk's criticism of the deficit spending that would accompany the Trump-branded 'One Big Beautiful Bill' that preserves and expands Trump's first-term tax cuts, slices into clean-energy initiatives carried in Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, and boosts spending on border and immigration policing. It's poised to add trillions to the national debt. Musk, a newly converted deficit hawk, has said he sees the red ink as an existential threat. House Republicans powered their first leg of this marathon across the line with the barest of majorities and zero margin for error. Democrats were unified in their opposition, and remain even more so now that they've had time to unpack everything in a 1,000-plus-page bill that also would limit how much courts could rein in Trump and neuter the ability of states to regulate artificial intelligence. In the Senate, things were already iffy. The White House plans to use a procedural trick that allows Senate Republicans to sidestep the typical filibuster rules and pass the legislation with a simple majority. But that's going to require keeping the parameters narrow and keeping the crayons inside the line, especially when it comes to long-term spending obligations. But Senate Republicans also plan to edit the bill text. Add in there Musk's threats of consequences for rubber stamping the House version and it's even murkier where this one goes. Does MAGA World Have To Pick Sides? As soon as Musk and Trump began bashing one another in earnest on Thursday, the GOP base immediately started agitating in three big directions. In one corner were those bucking up Trump's flank. Former White House strategist Steve Bannon went so far as to suggest the feds look at Musk's immigration status, hinting that the South African-born Musk could find himself on the losing side of a deportation skirmish. In another stood Musk's defenders, who said maybe the world's richest man was onto something when it came to the criticism that sparked the fallout: that the tax cuts in the bill would balloon the nation's already terrifying pile of IOUs. Musk's following remains huge, but he does not have a natural constituency the way other political leaders enjoy. That is why he is such a potent force in electoral efforts, especially among voters who feel no one in elected office has their interests at heart. Add in there the libertarian-minded Silicon Valley set, and it's an unusual coalition that few others could muster. Finally—and this is where so many Republican lawmakers are falling in line—is the corner where there's a last-ditch hope that Trump and Musk can move on, forgetting the pettiness of the last week. The Kiss-and-Make-Up Caucus, as it's been jokingly called among Hill aides, is one with long odds, to be sure. But it's a detente that might allow both billionaires to save face while sparing lawmakers from picking sides, a fraught choice given the passions running high with low-information voters. Johnson, speaking with reporters on Friday, tried to navigate a way out of this mess without any new tinder. 'It's not personal,' Johnson told CNBC on Friday. 'I don't tell my friend Elon how … to build rockets. I wish he wouldn't argue with me on how to craft legislation and pass it.' Do Hill Democrats Finally Have an Opening? Since Musk started busting-up the federal government in January, Hill Democrats have been in a listless tilt in search of a strategy. A few fiery speeches have not stopped Musk's march through the federal workforce. Some of the actions have been reversed, either through quiet climbdown or court-ordered pivots. But by and large, Democrats have been left on the sidelines and powerless to query Musk and his deputies, let alone stop them. That may shift now. Musk is clearly no longer a loyalist to Trump, who could still avail himself of claims of executive privilege and block Musk's cooperation with the Hill Democrats. But with Musk openly encouraging Trump's impeachment—which would be a record third time!—there are chances that this escalates in truly history-making ways. Hill Republicans have so far stuck together to protect Trump and, by extension, Musk from any real scrutiny. While much of Trump's Cabinet has bristled over Musk's over-reach into their fiefdoms, they have still dutifully shielded Musk and Co from any real oversight. Through some clever administrative trickery, the White House ensured that Musk was never technically a real federal employee, and even claimed he was never in charge of the office he was actually running. Efforts to haul him in for oversight hit a brick wall. Hill Republicans kept their frustrations buttoned-up and limited to closed-door venting. Now that Musk is untethered, the game may have changed. If the White House wanted to, it could go so far as to encourage Congress to make use of its subpoena power. While that's an unlikely outcome, Musk can no longer be assured of the safe bunker in Washington he had when this second Trump term began.
Time Magazine
3 days ago
- Business
- Time Magazine
The Musk-Trump Implosion Can Be Seen From Space
This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME's politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox. If you look at the Pentagon's organizational chart, President Donald Trump is atop the pecking order, carrying the title and power his predecessors enjoyed as Commander in Chief. But judging from the last 24 hours in Washington, as the world's most powerful man has gotten into a tit-for-tat schoolyard feud with the world's richest man, a more apt title comes to mind: Chief Petty Officer. Sitting in the Oval Office and on a dueling social media platform of his making, the billionaire President is lobbing threats and invectives at fellow billionaire Elon Musk, who just last week enjoyed the kind of warm sendoff seldom offered to outgoing Cabinet secretaries, who in Trump's first term were summarily fired on Twitter. Now that Musk owns Twitter—renamed X—the tables are turned, and Musk can use the same platform to derail Trump's agenda from afar. It's a breakup that stands to shake up the entire second term of Trump. And it's all playing out with more drama than a Housewives reunion. The unscripted unraveling comes as Washington is facing a self-imposed time crunch to finish work on a massive piece of legislation that accomplishes much of the agenda Trump promised as he sought the most unlikely return to power. It carries huge tax breaks, spending to tighten the border and immigration, and drastic cuts to programs promoting clean-energy programs. It's that last bit that seems to have sparked the shocking split between the two men who, until days ago, seemed to be of a sharedmind to trash the federal infrastructure with disregard to its effects. Trump wanted to scale back the size of government and gave Musk a sledgehammer and full access to just about every corner of it. But when Musk left Trump's side, he seemed suddenly cleared of any sense of loyalty. He started lobbing his problems with House Republicans' "One Big Beautiful Bill." He called it an abomination, a debt bomb, a mistake that would cost incumbents their jobs if they didn't reverse course. He said Trump would never have been elected without his financial help. (That one is probably right, as Musk was the single largest patron of efforts to get Trump back in power.) And, for good measure, in a social media post mid-afternoon Thursday, Musk said Trump is in the unreleased dossier about those involved in a sex trafficking operation of disgraced billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. As Trump responded in kind, the world was left watching a brawl involving two masters of the universe who, given their power and resources, could change the course of human history if only they would focus. Trump said Musk 'went CRAZY!' Trump threatened to take away all contracts from Musk's companies, including the SpaceX firm that has quickly become a critical player for NASA. (Musk's orbit benefits from at least $38 billion in loans, subsidies, tax credits, and outright contracts, according to a Washington Post analysis.) And as the spat went into its third day, Trump decided that holding his tongue was no longer working for him: 'Suddenly he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out we're going to cut the EV mandate that's billions and billions of dollars,' Trump said, mentioning the electric vehicle provisions that stand to benefit Musk's Tesla auto brand. Normally, billionaire spats make for good copy in the business sections of newspapers and the gossip columns of the tabloids. They're fun, "other people" problems and a form of escapism. But this is not that. Programs like food aid for poor children, health care for seniors, and subsidies for day-to-day needs are in the balance. The security of borders and the safety and well-being of millions of immigrants living in this country stand to change dramatically. A reordering of a domestic agenda for the next three years is on the table. And instead of trying to win the argument on merits, Trump is sinking to Musk's level and using his favorite tool of governance: transparent transactional threats. Musk, relishing in his relevance, seemed to be parked on X, hurling whatever he could grab. When one user noted that the U.S. government would be forced to walk away from the International Space Station and its upkeep without Musk's SpaceX fleet, the tech savant amplified it: 'Go ahead, make my day.' Bravado, maybe. But this is why for a generation the U.S. government kept so much of its core duties in-house, especially when it came to projects with huge barriers to entry. Now, with so much reliance on the billionaires with essential monopolies who can take the government hostage with their expertise, Trump is walking into this spat at a decided imbalance. Sure, he can match the pettiness, but he cannot match the political and technological heft. And that should elevate this well beyond a reality-show skirmish.
Time Magazine
4 days ago
- Business
- Time Magazine
Some Republicans Hope ‘Big Beautiful Bill' Keeps These Biden Policies in Place
This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME's politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox. It's been three years since Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act without the support of any Republicans. That includes the 14 House Republicans who signed a letter last month asking GOP leadership to please tweak plans to kill the IRA's clean-energy incentives in the mega-bill they are shepherding for Donald Trump. While much of the talk in Washington right now is about pitfalls aplenty in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill, the rollback of Biden-era clean-energy efforts is getting scant attention. Yet many voters are likely to notice the fallout from those changes, particularly in swing districts that will decide control of the House next year. Take the districts those 14 House Republicans represent. Thirteen of them voted for the House bill (Rep. Andrew Garbarino of New York missed the vote) despite provisions that could mean the loss of $40 billion in investment and 43,000 jobs in their districts collectively, according to a report from the nonpartisan Rhodium Group, which publishes quarterly updates on green jobs. Nationally, the rollbacks threaten 830,000 jobs connected to clean-energy projects. Despite the economic downsides, GOP leaders are moving ahead with a tax-and-spending bill that would wind down tax credits for cleaner cars like electric vehicles by the end of this year, scrap incentives for battery makers by 2028, and levy a new annual fee on drivers who opt into lower-emission vehicles (purportedly to replace lost gasoline taxes). At the same time, clean-energy manufacturers would see their tax credits go dark by 2031, and lower-emissions energy projects like wind, nuclear, and solar would lose their incentives in 2032. Across the country, job-creating projects currently in development would no longer make economic sense. While Elon Musk, the billionaire former White House budget adviser, is complaining about the bill's price tag—calling it 'a disgusting abomination'—less-MAGA conversant Republicans are quietly raising their own parochial worries. The numbers are real. For instance, in Rep. Jen Kiggans' Virginia district, which is based in the Hampton Roads region, about $11.3 billion in funding is at risk. That means about 2,005 jobs, an estimate based on announced projects that were not yet online as of March 31, the end of the first quarter of the year. Kiggans has been out front urging changes to the work her fellow Republicans have been doing, organizing the letter to colleagues asking they tweak their repeal language to give more flexibility on projects. 'We appreciate the Ways and Means Committee putting America first by investing in American energy dominance, but the last thing any of us want is to provoke an energy crisis or cause higher energy bills for working families,' they wrote on May 14. These lawmakers have already seen the upside from the three-year-old incentives. In Rep. Mark Amodei's Nevada district, constituents were expecting a total of $15.2 billion in clean-energy investments, but $7.6 billion of that is pending and now at risk. In Rep. Dan Newhouse's Washington district, the expected $5.4 billion in clean investments could be $4.5 billion less under the new proposal. And the list goes on for district after district, from coast to coast. The full House passed Trump's tax cuts on May 22, and the White House is pushing the Senate to follow suit before the July 4 holiday. But Senate Republicans have signaled that they're going to shave off some of the parts of the House version they don't love, and there are plenty of signs that it's in more trouble than Trump appreciates. The sticking points drawing the most heat include work requirements and deep cuts to Medicaid, and the expected addition of trillions to the national debt. Democrats, for their part, are laying the groundwork to see Republicans blamed for any downsides, including an economic hit from the US opting out of a green energy boom. 'The clean-energy credits that were part of the Inflation Reduction Act actually have had a significant benefit in terms of economic activity all across the country, particularly in red states and congressional districts represented by Republicans,' Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Tuesday during his weekly session with Hill reporters. 'Standing up a clean-energy economy lowers energy costs, helps to protect the environment, and combats the climate crisis with the fierce urgency of now that is necessary, while at the same period of time creating jobs and generating economic activity. Republicans decided that they want to detonate these clean-energy credits.' So far, it's been a message that has started to reach some corners of Washington, which only now is starting to grasp what all was in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill. The more lawmakers are looking, the more they're realizing their quest to unspool parts of the Biden legacy is threatening policies that might have been called 'pro-business' by some Trump allies—if only those ideas had originated with Republicans.
Time Magazine
6 days ago
- Business
- Time Magazine
‘We're All Going to Die': GOP Struggles to Defend Trump's Big, Beautiful Bill
This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME's politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox. Donald Trump's demand for a sprawling legislative package of expensive tax cuts and big spending reductions is running into trouble as even his strongest Republican allies are having trouble defending it. Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa leaned into tongue-in-cheek gallows humor last week, telling an audience 'Well, we all are going to die,' in response to concerns that kicking millions off Medicaid would lead to more deaths. House Speaker Mike Johnson, meanwhile, is simply repeating the inaccurate statements that the White House keeps putting out, asserting—very wrongly—on Sunday that 'we're not cutting Medicaid,' and last month claiming that the bill's deepest cuts would target migrants in the country without proper documentation. 'The numbers of Americans who are affected are those that are entwined in our work to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse. So, what do I mean by that? You got more than 1.4 million illegal aliens on Medicaid,' Johnson said on CNN on May 25. And just this week, he told NBC another disproven assertion: 'I am telling you this is going to reduce the deficit.' It all points to how openly frustrated Republicans on Capitol Hill are about walking a plank of their own making. Trump's demands to take on his second-term agenda in one bite has boxed in his party and they're plenty steamed about the blatant lack of an off-ramp. As one Hill aide put it to me, it's like watching what can most generously be called an 'Ostrich Strategy'—head in the sand, hoping no one notices the reality happening above ground. The fissures are there for anyone who dares see them. Sen. John Hawley of Missouri on Monday said the President had told him not to cut Medicaid benefits, despite the House-passed version doing exactly that with Trump's enthusiastic endorsement. The so-called Medicaid Moderates like Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have already balked at the House's version, which the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says would boot roughly 10 million people from current coverage. But other Republicans, like Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah, have a very different complaint—that the bill doesn't cut enough. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin says he would be fine leaving his seat if it means tanking a proposal that would balloon the debt by over $1 trillion even when factoring in economic growth. Sen. Rand Paul is objecting to a provision that increases the credit limit on the national credit card to cover purchases already made, also known as raising the debt ceiling. And these are nominal Trump allies. These big-ticket ideas rise and fall on salesmanship. At the height of debate over the Affordable Care Act, as Republicans were making hay out of so-called death panels, then-White House adviser David Axelrod had to tell President Barack Obama a hard truth: 'A whole bunch of facts and figures won't change that' opposition. Eventually, Obama's flood-the-zone approach powered Obamacare across the finish line, but it was plenty messy. The measure has proven durable because its benefits were tangible, and voters seldom surrender benefits. But that is not the norm. The wasteland of these policy failures is crowded. Bill Clinton's attempts to overhaul health care in the 1990s doomed his fellow Democrats to a hellish 1994 midterm cycle. George W. Bush's efforts to privatize Social Security after his re-election bid ran headlong into a woodchipper. Obama's second-term quest at a border bill similarly crashed into unbending opposition. Trump's first-term Infrastructure Week never really got off the ground as he lurched from tweet to tweet. Which explains why so many Republicans are squeamish about this current package. As passed by the House, Medicaid spending would be cut by at least $600 billion over a decade, reducing the rolls by 10.3 million people. The biggest chunk of that, $280 billion, would come from requiring Medicaid recipients to prove they are working. That work requirement is seen as bureaucratic red tape targeting a small pool of able-bodied participants who aren't currently working, while potentially kicking out many others who are already working but making too little to afford health coverage. Ultimately, this is going to come down to a simple truth in politics: the biggest bullhorn wins. With an ambitious timeline of getting the 'big beautiful bill' to the White House for the President's signature by the July 4 holiday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune has to work fast. The House bill as it arrived cannot pass, meaning the Senate needs to take up the shell and do a pretty hefty rewrite. Working with a 53-vote GOP majority in a 100-member chamber, Republicans are working under a rule loophole that will allow them to get to the finish line with a bare majority, and a tie-breaking vote from Vice President J.D. Vance if needed. That means Thune can lose just three of his own, and there are at least five nos at the moment, with a few others hinting that they want their seat at the rewrite table. Republicans have ownership of the House, Senate and White House. That doesn't mean they have control over every corner of them.
