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Speaker Johnson Just Delivered a Budget Resolution Stunner

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  February 25, 2025 8:30 PM

Let’s be honest here: we have a long way to go. The budget reconciliation process, including provisions for no tax on tip, border security, extending the Trump tax cuts, etc., will take weeks, with many avenues for legislative derailment. The Senate version is different, filled with Ukraine nonsense. The blueprints are set, but the House looked like it was veering toward delivering a body blow for the Trump White House. 

Given the slim majority, there virtually couldn’t be any more defections since Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) announced his opposition. Reps. Tim Burchett (R-TN) and Victoria Spartz (R-IN) were neither keen on this proposal. It led to the vote being pulled and later put back on the docket within minutes. Speaker Mike Johnson said definitively he had the votes, and he did. Spartz and Burchett flipped (via Fox News):

House Republicans' mammoth budget resolution survived its final hurdle late Monday night before heading for a chamber-wide vote. 

The legislation passed the House Rules Committee on a party-line vote in a measure combining several bills that are expected to get a full House vote this week. 

House GOP leaders aim to have it pass on Tuesday evening, Fox News Digital was told, but various concerns about spending cut levels could put that goal out of reach. Under the current margins, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., can only lose one Republican vote to pass a bill without Democrats. 

And that’s how it ended, on a 217-213 vote. 

Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) also opposed the legislation, but there were some phone calls from the Trump White House during the chaotic few minutes in the House leading up to the vote. In the end, Davidson also voted 'yes' (via Politico):

House Republicans approved a budget framework for President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy agenda Tuesday — a major victory for Speaker Mike Johnson who worked with Trump and fellow leaders in a chaotic last-ditch effort to win over naysayers within the GOP ranks. 

The vote went almost entirely along party lines, 217-213, with every Democrat voting against the measure and only GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky joining them. Adopting the budget measure is a key step toward passing the “big, beautiful bill” that Trump and Johnson have called for — one that includes border security, tax and energy provisions that the president campaigned on.

The Senate passed a competing plan last week, and the Republicans in the two chambers must now reconcile the significant differences between the two fiscal blueprints. 

[…] 

Given the House GOP’s tiny majority, and the united opposition of Democrats, those four hard-right holdouts could together block action. 

But Johnson deployed a highly targeted whip operation to court the hard-liners. He facilitated a call between Trump and Burchett and held an extended conversation with Davidson and Massie.

There are some concerns about cuts to Medicaid, though Trump said he will never sign a bill with those reductions. Again, there is a long way to go, but for now, what a budget stunner for Johnson and the House GOP. 

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The first obstacle has been scaled.