Chip Roy

While President Donald Trump sought to eliminate Republican infighting about Medicaid reform and state and local tax deduction caps, a group of Republicans wasn't persuaded.

Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas are pushing a bill that would make the federal government reimburse Texas for its border security costs during Joe Biden’s presidency.Though Cruz and Cornyn both have splashy press releases about it, and though Rep. Chip Roy of Texas is sponsoring the companion bill in the House, neither the House nor Senate version has any text. But, of course, there is a breathless Fox News piece about it. If we take the press push at its face, the bill would reimburse Texas for border spending from Jan. 20, 2021, onward, and any funds left over at the end of the Trump administration would go toward paying down the national debt. Since we can’t actually read the bill, it isn’t clear whether Texas continues to get reimbursed even now or if it only covers these costs from when Texas was suffering under Biden’s reign of terror. Even without being able to read the full bill, it’s clear that it serves two purposes, neither of which has anything to do with border security. Children play along the border wall separating Mexico and the United States.First, it allows Republicans to keep up the drumbeat that the Biden years were such a catastrophic failure that somehow states still bear the ill effects. And second, it allows Texas to get in on the cash grab. It’s pretty clear that the Trump administration has no ceiling on how much money it will spend on its violent immigration crackdown.This is especially rich coming from Texas, the state that spent the Biden era arguing to courts that, despite immigration being wholly a federal concern, the state had the authority to erect wire buoy barriers. And the state spent very handsomely on those barriers, throwing a cool $1 million at “experts” during litigation. Are federal taxpayers now on the hook for that as well?While $1 million may be nothing but spare change to the Trump administration these days, it underpins the biggest issue with this bill: How does the federal government decide whether the money spent by Texas was appropriate? Or is it just that any dime spent on the border by Texas from 2021 through 2025 is refundable no matter what?During President Donald Trump’s first term, Texas spent in the high 9 figures every year, so does it get reimbursed based on that spending? You’d think that none of this would be necessary, given how Mexico was going to pay for the wall. But even Texas Gov. Greg Abbott knew that was a lie, which is why he is spending billions of state money to build a wall instead. Or maybe he was going to crowdfund it?Cruz and Cronyn are craven, but they’re not stupid. It’s an excellent time to try to tap the federal coffers by demanding money to make life even more miserable for immigrants. So why shouldn’t Texas get some?Campaign Action

Dear Leader Donald Trump left the gilded White House on Tuesday to head to Capitol Hill, where he tried to strong-arm House Republicans into voting for his "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" by saying that the legislation, which is expected to rip health care and food stamps away from millions of low-income Americans, doesn't cut "anything meaningful."Trump made the wildly out-of-touch and false comment after he held a closed-door meeting with the sycophantic House Republican conference, which, as of this writing, appears not to have the votes to pass his dog-shit legislation. His visit was an effort to twist arms and get enough of the holdouts onboard to pass the bill."We're not doing any cutting of anything meaningful," Trump said, referring to the bill that is expected to cause 13.7 million people to lose their health insurance, and put nearly 11 million at risk of losing food assistance. "The only thing we're cutting is waste, fraud, and abuse. With Medicaid—waste, fraud, and abuse. There's tremendous waste, fraud, and abuse. ... We have illegal aliens that are multiple killers, with multiple murder records, getting Medicaid."xxYouTube VideoIn fact, the bill creates Medicaid work requirements, which experts say will be extremely costly to enforce and will lead people who are eligible to receive Medicaid benefits to lose their coverage because of bureaucratic red tape. The bill will also let enhanced premium tax credits that help Americans pay for Affordable Care Act plans expire, which would cause more than 4 million people to lose their insurance. The bill also shifts more of the costs of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps, onto states, which may not have the resources to fund the program at current levels. And it expands work requirements to receive the food aid, which could again cause eligible people to lose their benefits.After meeting with House Republicans, however, Trump falsely claimed that no one would lose food benefits because food prices “are coming way down.“The cut is going to give everybody much more food,” Trump said, an idiotic comment that we won’t even try to understand.xxYouTube VideoUltimately, House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to ram the legislation through his chamber before Republicans flee Washington, D.C., for the Memorial Day holiday. As of this writing, Johnson plans to hold a House Rules Committee meeting at 1 AM ET on Wednesday to change the legislation so that it will appease the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, which is demanding deeper Medicaid cuts in order to pay for the bill’s tax cuts.But it's unclear whether Trump's pep talk to his caucus of sycophants will be enough to get the legislation passed. Warring factions within the House conference are still not pleased, and hard-liners want more spending cuts."We all are here to advance the agenda that the president ran on and that we all ran on. ... I don't think the bill is exactly where it needs to be yet,” Rep. Chip Roy, a far-right Republican from Texas, said on Fox Business after the meeting with Trump, adding in a post on X, “We need to extend the Trump tax cuts, but we also need to deliver on the spending restraint."Meanwhile, a group of Republicans from New York and California want changes to the tax code to allow Americans to deduct more of the state and local taxes they pay—which would add to the deficit. Johnson had been negotiating with this group, which calls themselves the “SALT Caucus,” but no deal has been made so far, and Punchbowl News reported on Tuesday morning that the members are still pledging to vote against the bill. Of course, Republicans almost always cave when Dear Leader demands it, so we are under no pretenses that this reverse-Robin-Hood bill is destined to fail.But as of this writing, it does not have the votes.Contact your lawmakers and tell them to vote against a bill that steals from the poor to give to the rich.Campaign Action

'Have a tremendously unified party'

Some members said they were close to agreement after the meeting, though holdouts remain.

President Donald Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain, R-Mich., talk with reporters before a House Republican Conference meeting on the budget reconciliation bill in the Capitol on Tuesday.

The new bill would create funding sources to pay back states for border enforcement actions taken since former President Joe Biden's inauguration.

A House committee is holding a late-night meeting, which marks the last hurdle to get President Trump's budget bill to the floor.

The sleight of hand in the bill is that the Medicaid cuts would not take place until 2029, avoiding any political blowback in 2028. That is simply cowardice.

'Taking a more cautious approach'

House Republicans failed to push the bill out of the Budget Committee. Five GOP conservatives voted against it, demanding further cuts to Medicaid, green energy tax breaks and other changes.

The United States government lost its last AAA credit rating Friday evening with Moody’s Ratings downgrading the country to AA+, citing in part rising debt burdens. “This one-notch downgrade on our 21-notch rating scale reflects the increase over more than a decade in government debt and interest payment ratios to levels that are significantly higher [...]

'GET IT DONE'

Five Republicans on the House Budget Committee blocked the legislation from advancing on Friday.

Republicans on the House Budget Committee sank President Donald Trump's signature piece of legislation on Friday, with a quintet of hard-line Republicans voting it down in committee because the legislation doesn't make big enough cuts to Medicaid and food stamps.The “One Big, Beautiful, Bill” was before the committee so that Republicans could meld together all of the other GOP committees’ portions of the legislation, a critical step before it could go before the full House for a vote. But rather than pass along the legislation—which would kick nearly 9 million people off Medicaid, cause 11 million people to lose their food stamps, and make college more expensive for low-income families—the bill failed to advance by a vote of 16-21, after House Freedom Caucus Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, and Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma, along with Rep. Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania, voted with Democrats against the legislation.“Well, the noes have it. Godspeed and safe travels,” Rep. Jodey Arrington, who chairs the Budget Committee, said when the vote failed, sending members home for the weekend. This marks the first big failure for House Speaker Mike Johnson, who until now was able to keep his narrow majority together to advance what is supposed to be Trump's signature piece of legislation—a sweeping bill that slashes aid to the poorest Americans in order to pass a tax cut that overwhelmingly favors the rich.Related | GOP budget plans would rip health care away from millionsSigns of cracks in the GOP conference had emerged in recent days. Hard-liners, including the House Budget Committee members, began saying the bill’s cuts didn’t go far enough. Meanwhile, Republicans from New York and California pushed for the bill to increase the amount of state and local taxes—known as SALT—that taxpayers can deduct. Republicans like Roy want to make work requirements for Medicaid recipients go into effect sooner, even though experts say such conditions are needless and lead eligible people to lose their benefits due to burdensome paperwork errors. As written, the bill delayed the work requirements until 2029, after Trump’s term expires.“We were making progress, but the vote was called, and the problems were not resolved, so I voted no,” Roy wrote in a post on X. “I am staying in Washington this weekend to deliver. Medicaid Work requirements must start NOW not 2029 & the Green New Scam must be fully repealed, as President Trump called for.”All that’s to say, the bill is not dead. Republicans can make changes and take a fresh vote in the House Budget Committee.“Reps. Roy, Norman, Brecheen, Clyde and others continue to work in good faith to enact the President’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’” the House Freedom Caucus wrote in a post on X. “We were making progress before the vote in the Budget Committee and will continue negotiations to further improve the reconciliation package. We are not going anywhere and we will continue to work through the weekend.”And Trump himself urged Republicans to pass it, which could twist the arms of GOP holdouts who almost always follow Dear Leader’s demands.“Republicans MUST UNITE behind, ‘THE ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL!’” Trump wrote in a post on X. “Not only does it cut Taxes for ALL Americans, but it will kick millions of Illegal Aliens off of Medicaid to PROTECT it for those who are the ones in real need. The Country will suffer greatly without this Legislation, with their Taxes going up 65%. It will be blamed on the Democrats, but that doesn’t help our Voters. We don’t need “GRANDSTANDERS” in the Republican Party. STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE! It is time to fix the MESS that Biden and the Democrats gave us. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire speaks to reporters about her party’s opposition to Trump’s budget on May 13.However, the changes the Budget Committee Republicans want to make—including even more draconian cuts to Medicaid and food stamps—will likely not fly with Republicans in competitive districts who would get hammered at the ballot box were they to vote for the budget.That makes the path from here look perilous for Johnson, who according to The Wall Street Journal is losing the trust of his members as he tries to negotiate with the warring factions within the GOP caucus.Meanwhile Democrats, who have been publicly condemning the bill as a giveaway to the rich at the expense of the poor, took a victory lap when the bill failed to make it out of the Budget Committee."We just stopped the Republican budget bill in committee," Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, ranking member on the Budget Committee, wrote in a post on X. "Whether it's adding trillions to the debt, massive giveaways to billionaires, or millions of Americans kicked off their health care, Republicans know how unpopular this bill is. We wont stop fighting back."Campaign Action

Republicans delayed the Budget Committee vote Friday morning on the tax and spending package after Norman and others indicated they would vote "no" until substantial changes were made.

In a stunning setback, conservatives have blocked President Trump's big tax breaks and spending cuts bill.

House Republicans failed to push the bill out of the Budget Committee. Five GOP conservatives voted against it, demanding further cuts to Medicaid, green energy tax breaks and other changes.

Republicans are at odds over three particularly foolish ideas that threaten President Trump's best chance to turn the ship around and avert a 2026 blue wave.

The package is touching off a political debate over taxes, spending and the nation’s priorities.

House Republicans have revealed the sweeping tax provisions for President Donald Trump’s big bill.

The White House is making a last-ditch push to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans as part of President Trump's “big beautiful bill,” as Republicans lawmakers craft the final details of the tax package. The proposal, according to three sources, would allow the top marginal income tax rate cut that Trump signed into law in [...]

Republicans have been unable to agree on ways to cut federal spending on the program, and the speaker signaled he was preparing to move on.

Republicans are scrambling to resolve intense divisions over Medicaid as they hammer out a key piece of their massive bill for President Donald Trump’s agenda.

House Republicans are barreling into a crucial week in their effort to pass President Trump’s legislative agenda, with key policy hang-ups threatening to upend leadership’s timeline for approving the sprawling package. Those disagreements have already prompted delays as lawmakers haggle over how to address contentious issues while meeting deficit reduction targets. The Energy and Commerce [...]

Republicans are already hitting some snags as they begin the work of crafting a bill for President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy agenda.

Republicans on the House Transportation Committee floated an idea to levy a new tax on every car in the United States in order to help pay for Donald Trump's budget—which features tax cuts that overwhelmingly favor the rich.Sam Graves, who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, wanted to put a $20 annual tax on every car, and an even steeper $200 annual fee for electric vehicles and $100 for hybrids. The Missouri Republican and other members of the committee cooked up the desperate scheme to help partially pay for Trump's deficit-exploding tax cut and border security bill.Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO).But before a national car tax could be debated at a Wednesday hearing on Capitol Hill, Politico reported that House leadership had already nixed the idea following an uproar from conservative lawmakers and mocking from Democrats across the aisle."Are you out of your fricking mind?” GOP Rep. Chip Roy of Texas told Politico of the car tax idea. “Like, the party of limited government is gonna go out and, ‘say we’re gonna have [a car tax]?’Democrats slammed the idea, too."Of all the crazy things Republicans want to do, now they want a CAR TAX?!" Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday in a post on X. "HELL NO."On Wednesday, after it was reported that the tax wouldn’t be included in the GOP bill, Schumer tweeted, “lol, the republicans have already now backed off this dumb idea.”Republicans, however, are desperate to find $880 billion worth of cuts to the federal budget to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and pass a bill by Memorial Day.The majority of the cuts are expected to come from Medicaid—the critical government program that provides health insurance to 72 million low-income Americans.But Republicans are having issues coming to an agreement on how to cut the hugely popular program.Related | GOP's planned Medicaid cuts are a total self-ownSo far, the idea being floated by the GOP—paring back the Medicaid expansion funding passed by Democrats as part of the Affordable Care Act—would cause up to 20 million people to lose their health insurance, according to a KFF report.A handful of Republican lawmakers claim they won’t vote for a bill that cuts Medicaid. So will they actually vote for the legislation if it includes these proposed reductions? House Energy and Commerce Committee chair Brett Guthrie met with these GOP skeptics on Wednesday to try and convince them, according to Politico.“My sense is that would be a cut, and I’m not in favor of that,” Rep. Nick LaLota of New York said Tuesday. “But I do want to hear more from the Guthries of the world who have studied this issue for years.”That sure doesn’t sound like he’s a hard “No.”Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, another GOP lawmaker who says he would not vote to cut Medicaid, now says he’d be okay with up to $500 billion in cuts from the program, Politico reported. Seriously.Republicans’ own polling shows that cutting Medicaid would be a political disaster for the party. And a Civiqs poll conducted for Daily Kos in March found that 63% of registered voters oppose the idea of cutting Medicaid to pay for tax cuts. So it’s interesting that Republicans were so quick to drop their car tax idea to pay for rich people’s tax cuts—but have not ruled out ripping health insurance coverage away from the poorest Americans.Those are some seriously messed up priorities.Thank you to the Daily Kos community who continues to fight so hard with Daily Kos. Your reader support means everything. We will continue to have you covered and keep you informed, so please donate just $3 to help support the work we do.

House Republicans are divided over whether they would support raising taxes on the wealthy to help pay for President Donald Trump's tax agenda.

House Republicans are set to dive into discussions over the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap on Wednesday, officially kicking off negotiations for one of the largest — and most contentious — sticking points in the party’s package full of President Trump’s legislative priorities. Republicans who hail from high-tax blue states like New York, New [...]

A federal judge has blocked a portion of President Donald Trump's executive order on election integrity that a Gallup poll shows the majority of American adults support.

To extend Trump's tax cuts, the GOP is looking to cut Medicaid and other assistance programs

'It might surprise you'

As the fate of President Trump’s agenda hung in the balance in the House, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) turned to what he knows best: Prayer. At the end of an hours-long, late-night meeting that came after Johnson was forced to scrap a key vote Wednesday night, the Speaker, a devout Southern Baptist, led a group [...]

House Republicans have narrowly approved their budget framework. The 216-214 tally was a turnaround for Speaker Mike Johnson after abruptly postponing Wednesday's vote. Johnson worked into the night to satisfy conservative lawmakers who had refused to support the plan. He...

The vote was initially delayed amid conservatives' concerns about the level of spending cuts.

Nearly all Democrats lined up against the bill and warned that it risks disenfranchising millions of Americans who do not have ready access to the proper documents.

Republicans say the act is necessary to ensure only U.S. citizens cast ballots. Democrats opposed to the bill warn it'll risk disenfranchising millions of Americans.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., arrives for a House Republican Conference meeting in the Capitol on April 1.

Senate Republicans on Wednesday unveiled a 70-page budget resolution that they say would give Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a staunch ally of President Trump, the power to determine whether extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts officially adds to the federal deficit. Republicans say the bill empowers Graham to use a “current policy” [...]

Bills aimed at clamping down on campaign contributions from government contractors while separately providing more public money to run for political office remain alive following a key Senate committee hearing Tuesday, joining other bills aimed at government reform that continue to move through the Legislature.

The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on judges blocking the Trump administration's agenda on Tuesday.

Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, seen here in January, gathered enough support to bring down a rule that included a move to block progress on a parental proxy voting effort.

House Republicans are coalescing around Rep. Darrell Issa's bill to limit judges' ability to issue nationwide injunctions as a push for judicial impeachments appears to fizzle.