Johnson tells Republicans Trump wants one big policy bill as party charts course on agenda

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

Source: CNN

House Speaker Mike Johnson informed Republicans at a closed-door meeting Saturday that Donald Trump favored moving his agenda as one sweeping package, according to sources in attendance — a key announcement fraught with risk but one that sets the stage for advancing the president-elect’s ambitious plans.

The effort to include border, energy and tax policies in a single bill is a shift from where Senate Republican leader John Thune has been, but it also represents an evolution in how Trump’s team has begun to see the legislative landscape over the last several weeks. A source familiar with this change told CNN it had become clear with the spending bill debacle and a narrow speaker’s race that there will be very little room to maneuver two separate bills — one on the border and energy and one regarding tax policies.

Thune and other GOP senators had argued that jump-starting Trump’s term with a border and energy policy bill — packed with widely popular GOP ideas — and punting on a tax bill until later in the year would be a better move politically than risking a dragged-out tax battle.

But several key Republicans in the House, including Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, had spent months pushing for a single bill, arguing that two measures would become too unruly in the chamber, where the GOP has an extremely narrow majority.

“It shows the best and quickest approach to deliver for President Trump is one beautiful, big package,” Smith told CNN last month.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/04/politics/mike-johnson-donald-trump-gop-agenda/index.html

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The Repugs are mirroring Der Fuehrer's flowery language. I mean, when was the last time you heard legislation referred to as "beautiful"?

[pfitz59]

1. 'Eat this huge shit sandwich!'

Or Elon and his pals will bury you. Easy to read between the lines.

[lefthandedskyhook]

30. A turd this big will gather opposition from all over the sausage factory

What a relief to learn they are so inept at whipping votes that this will never pass without massive compromises. Biden got tons of stuff passed because of genuine experience and skill

[snowybirdie]

2. This should be fun

to watch all the Repubs tripping all over themselves. Gotta get more popcorn

[LuvLoogie]

37. You don't get it.

All they have to do is break shit, and uphold authoritarian power. They have the courts, Nazi police, and christo-fascists on their side.
All they want to do is build chaos and nihilism. Their moneyed leaders have bunkers. Their vassals have guns and impunity. And hate.

[LuvLoogie]

3. They will do it.

They will kill the safety net, oversight, regulations, healthcare, civil rights, all at once.

And their Nazi militias and Nazi police will be tasked to quell any unrest.

[C_U_L8R]

4. In two weeks, right.

[Red Mountain]

6. Don't read, VOTE!

[HUAJIAO]

19. Vote! Where? When? For whom?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. "In two weeks, right." ? Your post is so terse that it is meaningless. What are you trying to mean?

Do you mean give up now?
Do you mean give up in two weeks?
Do you mean start to battle it in two weeks?
Do you mean they will pass it in two weeks of sessions?
Do you mean to be dismissive, which is commonly the take when a sentence is ended with comma "right.". Dismissive of what?
Do you mean to dismiss the significance of this?

I don't see a reference to two weeks in the OP. The House can start work now, not in two weeks which would be Jan. 18, before tRump is inaugurated.

[C_U_L8R]

13. Every big huge plan Trump says he has

is claimed to be coming in 'two weeks'.
And of course, they never materialize.

Sorry for being cryptic, I thought it was common punchline.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. I see. It is a semi-common punchline I've seen but I didn't think of it. Thanks. . . . nt

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

21. I plan on understanding the tongue-in-cheek comment in two weeks. n/t

[liberalgunwilltravel]

5. Teeing up failure

Great way to start.

[multigraincracker]

7. Will need a diversion.

War with Greenland?

[bluestarone]

8. The more they piss off Americans in the next two years will be to our advantage. ( I hope)

Let these dumb ASSHOLES dig their grave!

[ZonkerHarris]

17. yup. Let them cook. vota against it but hold them all accountable later

[Midnight Writer]

9. Never thought I would see "President Trump" and "big, beautiful package" in the same sentence.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

22. ROFLOL!

[Crowman2009]

36. More like a limp package.

[reACTIONary]

11. Sounds like a plan...

... a poor plan. With such narrow margins in the house and senate, they are going to have to break this up to get bits and pieces passed.

At least that's what I think. Maybe it works otherwise?

[JohnnyRingo]

29. I'm with you.

The republican party is more fractured and less obedient than he thinks. Everyone one will dislike something in it.

Sounds like something Stephen Miller would come up with.

[DallasNE]

12. Put All Of The Earmarks In One Bill

Give all of the Republican all of the pork they want. Gotcha.

[Attilatheblond]

18. Drown voters with too many things at once & maybe they won't fight back

Otherwise known as the Baffle Them With Bullshit method

[mysuzuki2]

14. In other words...

Give me everything I want RIGHT NOW!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

16. A big shit sandwich in other words

[Mike 03]

34. "And we're all gonna have to take a bite "

--Full Metal Jacket

[Hugin]

39. It seems that the we-never-heard-of-Project-2025 is going to try to ram through Project 2025 in reconciliation, perhaps?

We’ll see.

[sheshe2]

20. This is not going to go well for Massa Mike.

[RedWhiteBlueIsRacist]

23. "...one big, beautiful package"? Trump still thinking of Arnold Palmer!

[Montauk6]

24. One big bucket of extra awful?

[not fooled]

25. Throw some red meat to the maggots

with border legislation and hide the actual goal--tax cuts for the wealthy--in the same big, beautiful package! Plus get the tax cut done early on so their dumbass voters forget about it before the next election!

[qazplm135]

26. Tells me they think they have a clock

And not much time to pass stuff before the next election cycle freezes everything in place

[Figarosmom]

27. He knows that is the only way

He's going to get those upper class tax cuts passed. There are plenty in his party that refuse to increase the deficit

[JohnnyRingo]

28. Not everyone is going to like parts of that package.

He may have a hard time winning the different factions of the republican party, and they need all the votes plus some help from democrats.

The Freedom Caucus will probably complain it doesn't go far enough and the few moderates will harp that it's too much at once.

[no_hypocrisy]

31. "Two measures would become too unruly in the chamber"

IOW, a Bill with a plethora of laws would be nearly impossible to debate each item. Say there were 20 proposals within one omnibus Bill, and there was debate on each proposal, it would take half a year to pass the Bill, given the liberal (excuse the pun) recess time The House takes.

[Emile]

32. Well they got the majority, let's see if they can govern. If

they don't pass their big bill, it's all on the majority party.

[Mike 03]

33. Trump and the Heritage Foundation have telegraphed that they

intend to go big and go fast. So many bills and executive orders are going to eject from the Oval Office so quickly it will be hard to keep track of everything. But that is one of the most important things we can do in the first weeks--sort out what is being rolled back, which regulations are being remanded, which things he does exert upwards pressure on prices, and deduce from all of this what all the implications will be for citizens and also our foreign allies who we trade with. It won't be easy but we'll have a lot of hands on deck and can manage.

[Hope22]

40. Bills are already written by Heritage and delivered to orange monster. .

Packets for each state ready for delivery as well. Same drill as prior years. The difference is so many sates are foundered by gerrymandering and these sick, immoral changes will be accepted across the country.

[no_hypocrisy]

35. Rant #2

A giant omnibus bill?

Any single bill can have 100 to thousands of pages. And a few honest representatives have admitted they (or their staffs) don’t read the bills completely before voting on them.

And now prospectively, they will be presented with an omnibus bill with hundreds of thousands of pages.

Impossible! And we’ll be shackled with ill-advised, unexamined laws that will have a major impact on us all.

And all because of two congressional districts that voted “red”.

[Frank D. Lincoln]

38. Democrats should vote lock-step against it until

it's broken up into many smaller bills.

[Dem4life1970]

41. Oh? So now the Freedom Caucus likes Omnibus bills that no one has read?

I will love to hear (R-TX) Chip Roy's mental gymnastics when he and others on his side of the aisle vote for this.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

42. One big bill makes sense.

There are only so many times that Presidents Trusk can threaten congress with being primaried before they get tired of it and start to ignore him. So, get as much as he can as fast as he can.

I'm sure the presidents already threatened a few representatives with primaries in order to get Johnson reinstated as Speaker.