Senate GOP Saves MAGA Johnson From Himself

Or, you could say they’ve just added to his troubles. It cuts both ways.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is one sneaky customer. He’s pretty good at playing all sides and somehow manages to get things done in the world he claims to belong to. I have no doubt that if Mitt Romney were president, Johnson would be so center-right that the far-right would despise him. But with Donald Trump in power, he wears a very different set of colors.

That said, Johnson did manage to push the Ukraine aid package through the House when Biden was president. Then he secured the speakership again in just two rounds of voting—a historic feat (!).

But his luck may have run out. In his zeal to pass a tax break bill, Johnson accepted the Freedom Caucus’s proposal to strip $2 trillion from the budget and hand it to GOP megadonors. The Freedom Caucus knew exactly how much they wanted to cut but didn’t particularly care where Johnson would find the money. As the House Budget Committee started slashing benefits for everyday Americans, opposition grew louder.

“I don’t know where they’re going to get the cuts,” said Rep. David Valadao, who represents a deep blue district in central California, as he left the Capitol last Thursday. By Wednesday, the number of House members publicly expressing dissatisfaction with the cuts had grown to 12.

Eight of them put their frustration in writing—then made the letter public.

Ouch!