The big story this week in Congress and for political junkies is the "One Big Beautiful Bill" that passed the House a few weeks ago and is currently waiting for a vote in the Senate.
Some big names on Capitol Hill and beyond have criticized the bill as a spending boondoggle that doesn't cut enough and adds to the deficit, and ask why DOGE and other spending cuts aren't being implemented. While conservatives are rightly concerned that we'll get more unfulfilled campaign promises, the fact is that not everything we want to get done can be accomplished in a reconciliation bill. Here's a thumbnail about reconciliation bills and how they work (emphasis mine):
"Budget reconciliation bills can deal with mandatory spending, revenue, and the federal debt limit, and the Senate can pass one bill per year affecting each subject. Congress can thus pass a maximum of three reconciliation bills per year, though in practice it has often passed a single reconciliation bill affecting both spending and revenue. Policy changes that are extraneous to the budget are limited by the "Byrd Rule", which also prohibits reconciliation bills from increasing the federal deficit after a ten-year period or making changes to Social Security."
The DOGE cuts are overwhelmingly discretionary spending, and therefore cannot be accomplished through a reconciliation bill. Instead, they'll be codified via a $9.4 billion rescissions package the White House sent to Congress on Tuesday. House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) promised to bring that package to the House Floor next week.
Proud to lead this massive rescissions package to codify $9.4 BILLION of President Trump's spending cuts.
— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) June 4, 2025
We will bring this to the House Floor next week.
This is a critical move to lock in real savings for the American people. pic.twitter.com/DIzZcQZgdc
Now, those are some things I really want eliminated.
After the Big, Beautiful Bill and the rescissions package pass, Congress will turn its attention to the annual appropriations bill, which is where huge spending cuts can occur. And since the debt ceiling and a number of other contentious issues (like the tax cuts and funding for deportations and the border wall) will be off the table, it'll be harder for Senate Democrats to hold anything hostage, and more spending cuts can occur. As Stephen Miller said:
A second major point of confusion is what’s actually in a reconciliation bill. It is not an appropriations bill, or a general budget bill. It provides no funding or authorization for 99%+ of the operations of government. It was written not by appropriators but some of the most conservative members of the House. It has not a single Democrat provision or vote.
The bill has three principal sections: tax cuts, welfare reform, immigration and border security. It is a dream bill.
Another criticism of the Big, Beautiful Bill is that it increases spending and deficits. According to both the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) the bill reduces spending and deficits. Miller says the CBO analysis shows a $1.6 trillion spending cut, and Russ Vought, OMB Director, said Wednesday:
"OMB just reviewed the new CBO score of the One Big Beautiful bill. It confirms what we knew about the bill at House passage. The bill REDUCES deficits by $1.4 trillion over ten years when you adjust for CBO's one big gimmick--not using a realistic current policy baseline. It includes $1.7 trillion in mandatory savings, the most in history. If you care about deficits and debt, this bill dramatically improves the fiscal picture."
Since the bill includes entitlement reforms and funds deportations and the border wall, it stands to reason that long-term the savings will be even higher than the CBO or OMB could reasonably estimate. As Mike Cernovich opined:
Imagine you could snap your fingers and all of the USAID NGO “migrants” brought in were teleported home.
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) June 4, 2025
We wouldn’t even be having a conversation about budget deficits, we would be flush with cash.
After a Senate Republican Caucus meeting, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said:
Those who criticize the bill for not reducing spending enough – I understand your point and I agree. To those who believe we must pass some version of the bill by July 4th, you’re dead right.
Making the tax cuts permanent, increasing defense spending and providing money to secure our border is an essential part of this bill, and it needs to be passed now.
When it comes to spending reductions, here’s the reality:
✅ The reconciliation process is focused only on mandatory spending. By law, changes to Social Security cannot be a part of reconciliation.
✅ Medicare has been virtually untouched in both the House and Senate proposals. Medicaid reforms like work requirements and dealing with the provider tax scam are sources of legitimate savings without reducing benefits for those who need it. Medicaid spending has grown by nearly 50% in the last 5 years and it is now time to address this problem.
✅ We can improve this bill in terms of cost savings. But it’s important to note we have two more reconciliation bills available to us to reduce spending further and define additional tax cuts.
My goal: Make this bill better in a way the House can accept and put it on President Donald Trump’s desk by July 4th.
So, it looks like the Senate will attempt to make some changes and send it back to the House, which is a good opportunity for conservatives to fight for additional spending reductions within the confines of what reconciliation allows - and keeping in mind what Graham said about the possibility of additional reconciliation bills this year.
Theoretically, these efforts could be separated into dozens of standalone bills, but each would have to get 60 votes in the Senate since they're not part of a reconciliation bill. Given the time frame in which the GOP Congress must codify these cuts and accomplish other legislative priorities - it wouldn't be good to be heading toward the last weeks of the fiscal year before getting to appropriations, and we're almost to that point - and the lack of any feasible legislation that can get 218 votes in the House and 51 in the Senate, the only answer is to pass the Big, Beautiful Bill as soon as possible.
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