The rapidly spinning news cycle and the good feelings engendered by Christmas and the celebration of the birth of our Savior seem to have overshadowed a major blunder by President-elect Donald Trump that could drastically undermine his prospects for a successful second term.
The unforced error was President Trump’s attack on the 38 conservative House Republicans who voted NO on a yearend spending package put forth as “Plan B” by Speaker of the House Mike “The Disappointment” Johnson.
The bill, which Trump supported and argued was “a very good Deal for the American people,” mustered support from just two House Democrats, Reps. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) and went down in a 174-235-1 vote.
We call this a blunder on Trump’s part because the 38 conservative Republicans he attacked, who voted NO, would normally be among the strongest House supporters of the MAGA agenda, and he will need their votes on everything from immigration, to FBI and DOJ reforms, to ending DEI at the Pentagon and the rest of the federal government, to implementing his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) recommendations.
However, waiving the debt ceiling while not cutting spending was contrary to the campaign promises most of the NO votes made in the recent election – and they weren’t about to break those promises and set a precedent for increasing the national debt before the new GOP trifecta of White House, House and Senate took control of the federal government.
These GOP representatives voted against the measure that would have suspended the debt limit:
Aaron Bean (Fla.)
Andy Biggs (Ariz.)
Josh Brecheen (Okla.)
Tim Burchett (Tenn.)
Eric Burlison (Mo.)
Kat Cammack (Fla.)
Michael Cloud (Texas)
Andrew Clyde (Ga.)
Eli Crane (Ariz.)
John Curtis (Utah)
Jeff Duncan (S.C.)
Russ Fulcher (Idaho)
Bob Good (Va.)
Paul Gosar (Ariz.)
Andy Harris (Md.)
Wesley Hunt (Texas)
Doug Lamborn (Colo.)
Debbie Lesko (Ariz.)
Greg Lopez (Colo.)
Morgan Luttrell (Texas)
Nancy Mace (S.C.)
Thomas Massie (Ky.)
Richard McCormick (Ga.)
Cory Mills (Fla.)
Alexander Mooney (W.Va.)
Blake Moore (Utah)
Nathaniel Moran (Texas)
Ralph Norman (S.C.)
Andy Ogles (Tenn.)
Scott Perry (Pa.)
Bill Posey (Fla.)
Matt Rosendale (Mont.)
Chip Roy (Texas)
David Schweikert (Ariz.)
Keith Self (Texas)
Victoria Spartz (Ind.)
Thomas Tiffany (Wis.)
Beth Van Duyne (Texas)
Trump was particularly harsh in his criticism of conservative stalwart Chip Roy, who had supported Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the Republican primaries, but his vitriolic comments appeared to be applicable to the rest of the 38.
Ultimately, a bill was passed to fund the government past President Trump’s second inauguration and to set the stage for one of the first big debates of his new administration to be about spending.
And that appears to be something that the newly reelected President was not too happy about.
The problem that Trump now has is that having called upon voters to primary his Republican opponents, with a slim two-vote majority in the House, he has just turned loose 38 Republicans who now have nothing to lose by opposing him again.
What’s more, just a week before the year-end spending battle came to a head, President Trump was promoting the idea that his Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE, was going to do the very thing that the 38 conservatives who voted NO on the spending package wanted done – cut spending.
The U.S. budget deficit hit a record high $1.8T in FY24, with the government paying for it through the sale of Treasury bonds (US10Y) and other securities. The deficit has gotten so bad it is stoking worries about a bond oversupply. Trump’s new advisory group, Department of Government Efficiency, whose co-head is Elon Musk, is looking for overall federal cuts of at least $2T.
If DOGE and President Trump are going to have any chance of cutting $2 trillion from the federal budget, then Trump is going to need the votes of every one of the Republican spending hawks he just attacked. We urge the President-elect to quickly make peace with conservatives in the House to get his agenda back on track, if he does not heal this rift, we fear the entire MAGA agenda, not just DOGE is in deep trouble.
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38 conservatives