Lisa Desjardins:
Right. There are still two groups. There are some moderates who are still uncomfortable with this bill and the cuts to Medicaid.
But as I speak to them, more and more of them seem to be getting on board the bill. That includes Don Bacon of Nebraska, who told me he likes the spending on defense that we talked about last night. He’s willing to take the tradeoffs because of that. Or Ken Calvert, a Republican of California, told me he’s getting there on this bill.
The bigger problem tonight seems to be convincing the Freedom Caucus and fiscal conservatives. Let’s look at part of the group. It is a large group of dozens of members with concerns. But here are some core members, Chip Roy among them and some others, who say that they are concerned about the red ink in this bill.
Some of them, including Ralph Norman, have told me that they were a hard no on the procedure and on the bill itself this morning. But let me tell you what has been happening in the last couple of hours. These members have been in talks not just with Speaker Johnson, but with the White House.
And what they are asking for, what they have been offered are perhaps some executive orders if they go for the bill in its current form, executive orders to somehow cut spending or rein in some of the social policy that they wanted in this bill.
But one member told me they are concerned because of the way court rulings have gone that they’re not sure those executive orders would stand. So what’s happening is you’re seeing all three branches involved in this discussion in theory. And while these members want to get to yes, there is a bottom-line number problem for them in this bill.
