The tale of two budget bills continues

The Senate may be filled with octogenarians, but it defied the odds this week with a marathon “vote-a-rama” that lasted almost ten hours — just in time to set it up on a collision course with the Republican-led House across the Capitol.

Despite the stated preference of President Donald Trump for “one big, beautiful bill” for reconciliation, the Senate pushed through a giant reconciliation bill, which will be smaller than whatever the House seems poised to pass. 

The Senate’s version tackles one of Trump’s top priorities, border security, while punting votes on other Trump measures, like extending his namesake 2017 tax cuts, to later. While Senator Rand Paul belatedly issued a full-throated endorsement of Trump this week, he was the sole Republican to join with every Democrat in opposing it.

“Are Republicans for getting rid of waste, fraud and abuse — and reducing the deficit, balancing the budget, as the president says — or are they really for increasing spending by $340 billion?” Paul asked.

Prior to the vote, Senator Josh Hawley made some noise about voting against it, until he heard directly from Trump that, despite the president’s preference for a bill like the House’s, he seemed to accept the Senate proceeding as well, leaving Paul as the lone GOP defector.

“I wasn’t going to vote for this unless [Trump] supported moving forward,” Hawley said. “[Trump] issued a statement in which he said he was in support of the border funding. So, that’s good enough for me.” 

Throughout the vote-a-rama, Senate Democrats attempted to throw roadblocks into the GOP push, succeeding at times in peeling off some Republican votes for measures on issues like reinstating federal workers who were laid off en masse. 

Following this vote, eyes shift to the House, where most expect it to pass its counter-proposal by April. How the chambers will reconcile remains completely up in the air.

–Matthew Foldi

On our radar

GAME CHANGER In what is being touted as a “thrilling” Four Nations Face-Off, the US hockey team is suffering from a humiliating overtime defeat by Canada.

NOEM MORE MISTER NICE-GUY The nation’s new Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem has deputized 600 State Department officials to help in illegal immigrant deportation efforts. 

MINERAL RESOURCES The US is reportedly negotiating with Ukraine over a deal to access its considerable amount of rare earth elements.

Mitch McConnell announces retirement

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the longest-serving Senate leader in history, announced on his eighty-third birthday Thursday that he will not run for re-election. From the Senate floor he gave an impassioned speech reflecting on his career, and soon after, he gifted his party an unexpected “yes” vote for now-FBI director Kash Patel. 

McConnell leaves behind a storied legacy, with Time magazine twice naming him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In recent years, however, his public clashes with President Donald Trump have led to significant reputations harm. A year ago, he stepped down from Senate leadership, punctuating the Republican Party’s ideological transition. 

“Thanks to Ronald Reagan’s determination, the work of strengthening American hard power was well underway when I arrived in the Senate. But since then, we’ve allowed that power to atrophy,” McConnell said in his Thursday speech, vaguely alluding to the party’s changing ideas. 

The party McConnell grew up in, having interned at the age of twenty-two for Senator John Sherman Cooper, has dramatically changed. Where a minority sees principle, a majority sees a “RINO.” Still, McConnell is looking beyond the moment. Rebuking popular Trumpian views with Foreign Affairs articles and in the Senate floor, “Cocaine Mitch” is aiming for a place in the American imagination. 

In his personal story, the same party that grew tired of him can still find something to admire. Politically speaking, however, Donald Trump Jr.’s recent tweet captures the public sentiment: “Bye Mitch ✌️.”

–Juan P. Villasmil

What’s next for defeated Democrats? 

Kamala Harris can’t help but shadow former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. While the former vice president won’t join Barack or Joe in the exclusive club of residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue any time soon, she is following them to a deal with Creative Artists Agency, one of the top talent firms in America, which recently re-signed Biden after his White House departure.

“CAA will work closely with Harris on her post-White House initiatives, creating strategic opportunities that expand her platform in support of the issues she has championed throughout her decades-long career in public service,” the agency wrote on an Instagram post announcing its latest acquisition.

Harris joins presidents 44 and 46 on the elite agency’s roster, but the CAA clients she is most like at this point are actually Beto O’Rourke and Joe Manchin, who respectively unsuccessfully ran for president and hemmed and hawed about running for president before deciding against it.

The CAA signing is unlikely to impact whatever political decisions Harris has down the road; she is reportedly mulling campaigns for governor of California or for president again in 2028 (a campaign for which completely baseless rumors claim that she will pick Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as her running mate have already taken off).

Two other defeated Democrats launched a new venture of their own, but haven’t secured a CAA sinecure just yet: Congressman Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush are launching, you guessed it, a podcast! Bowman and Bush will launch exclusively on Zeteo an outlet founded by Mehdi Hasan, who recently found himself in hot water for tweeting, and then deleting, “Make American Planes Crash Again.” The new podcast will “dive deep into what’s really happening in Congress and explore the powerful influence of big money,” per Bush. “Baby, I’m still here,” she said in the launch video.

–Cockburn