House Republicans are trying to advance a $95 billion budget resolution that would unlock Reconciliation 3.0, their third party-line spending package this Congress. The framework would direct $60 billion to the Pentagon, $13 billion to other national security needs, $12 billion to farmers affected by Donald Trump’s tariffs, and $10 billion toward voting law changes. But the plan has no offsetting cuts, Senate Republicans remain skeptical, and Congress is about to leave for six weeks. There’s not a lot of time on the clock. The time to pass something was yesterday.
This is a mess. No matter what you think of Iran, you’ve got to pay for it somehow. Pete Hegseth told senators that the Pentagon was running short of cash after estimating that the war had already cost $37.5 billion. John Thune has been noncommittal and doesn’t want to deal with a vote-arama that could force vulnerable Republicans to take tough votes so close to the election. I don’t know if that’s as important as it used to be. If you can’t message beyond a vote, then you’ve probably failed at messaging.
