“Whaddaya want, egg in your beer?”
I wrote this just two days ago: Pass the Big Beautiful Bill — or Be Objectively Pro-Democrat
Now, there are a couple of things some people had trouble grasping: first, the list of reasons to pass it was actually me reporting what Mike Johnson was saying, and second, that there were a couple more days of negotiation coming.
And there were. Pretty much all day and most of the night, until the aforementioned Big Beautiful Bill — hereinafter the BBB because I have a strict hyperbole limit from the editors and I still have a Donald Trump tweet to include — finally passed 215 to 214, as noted by my colleague Chris Queen this morning.
As a commenter said on that post, this was Mike Johnson not only herding cats, but herding rabid cats, and he deserves the credit.
Is it everything we might have wanted? No. Hell, it’s not even everything Mike Johnson wanted. But it had one real virtue:
It would pass.
And if it passed, it could go to conference with the Senate, at which point something that could pass both the House and the Senate could go on to President Trump’s desk for his Big Beautiful Signature.
Trump understands this:
“THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL” has PASSED the House of Representatives! This is arguably the most significant piece of Legislation that will ever be signed in the History of our Country! The Bill includes MASSIVE Tax CUTS, No Tax on Tips, No Tax on Overtime, Tax Deductions when…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 22, 2025
… you purchase an American Made Vehicle, along with strong Border Security measures, Pay Raises for our ICE and Border Patrol Agents, Funding for the Golden Dome, “TRUMP Savings Accounts” for newborn babies, and much more! Great job by Speaker Mike Johnson, and the House Leadership, and thank you to every Republican who voted YES on this Historic Bill! Now, it’s time for our friends in the United States Senate to get to work, and send this Bill to my desk AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! There is no time to waste. The Democrats have lost control of themselves, and are aimlessly wandering around, showing no confidence, grit, or determination. They have forgotten their landslide loss in the Presidential Election, and are warped in the past, hoping someday to revive Open Borders for the World’s criminals to be able to pour into our Country, men to be able to play in women’s sports, and transgender for everybody. They don’t realize that these things, and so many more like them, will NEVER AGAIN happen!
Trump understands better than anyone that he could be out of the game at any time. Just ask his right ear. And in any case — Trump 2028 hats notwithstanding — he will be out of the game in just 1,339 days and would be out of the game a lot earlier if the Republicans lose the House. So things like the BBB are really survival issues, politically if not personally.
It delivers a lot of things that were on Johnson’s wish list:
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Tax cuts — and heads off a tax increase that would cripple the economy.
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Funding for missile defense, the “Golden Dome.”
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Making new border security measures law, not just executive orders that the next Democrat president could reverse.
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With those, pay raises for Border Patrol and ICE.
It also includes a bigger SALT deduction. Not so desirable, but still negotiable in conference. And as I wrote back in 2017, that’s really Trump’s deal: always be closing. He made a massive effort to close the deal in the House, and Mike Johnson backed him.
So to be blunt: grow up. This is a win, even if only a partial win. But it’s a lot better than another continuing resolution. It would be a good time to make some phone calls to your representatives and senators to tell them not to pee in the soup. And it would be a good time, even now, to start working for adding to the Republican majority in both the House and the Senate.
As I said a couple of days ago, if we don’t, we risk squandering a generational opportunity.
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