Tuesday, 03 June 2025

House Speaker Mike Johnson Just CANCELED Friday’s Vote

100 Percent Fed Up
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In a move reminiscent of the GOP rebellion of only 6 weeks ago, Speaker Mike Johnson cancelled Friday’s scheduled votes in the House.

That includes voting on the President’s comprehensive plan for spending cuts and tax cuts now known as the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’.

The House Majority Whip released this notice, in essence giving Representatives another 3-day weekend right on the heels of… a 4-day weekend:

“Members are advised that votes are no longer expected in the House on Friday, May 16.

Last votes for the week are now expected at approximately 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 15.

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This is a change from the previously announced schedule.

On one hand, I’m ready for Congress to just put the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ on hold so the House can ELECT A NEW SPEAKER.

Then, maybe we can get some things done.

On the other hand… (there is no other hand).

I am tempted to play the games that most of the media is playing and report that Speaker Johnson is doing his gosh-darn best to get things done, but it’s hard — all these conflicting groups!

But the fact is, Speaker Johnson knew this day was drawing near.

And he KNOWS the positions of the differing caucuses and groups inside the Republican party.

What is happening right now isn’t any more a “rebellion” than it was 6 weeks ago.

It’s a FAILURE of leadership!  And he’s smack-dab in the middle of it, like it or not.

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Just 6 weeks ago the Speaker blamed everyone but himself for a vote stoppage on the President’s legislation, when in reality it was his stubbornness:

And 6 weeks later, the House is basically in the same situation.

Something that should have already been ironed out, something that DIDN’T have to put voting on hold… now has.

Nevertheless, there are differing factions.  And although this COULD and SHOULD have been ironed out before now — that’s what this vote cancellation is all about.

In spite of the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ making it through the hurdles of 11 different House Committees who have tweaked and adjusted it for consensus, he has yet to work out the two primary points of contention between Republicans.

And he is now (LAST MINUTE MIKE…) trying to resolve these key issues.

An anonymous Republican Representative literally said they’re basically hoping Johnson will pull a rabbit out of a hat last minute, according to a report in Politico:

Speaker Mike Johnson is racing to resolve a suite of remaining issues with the GOP megabill just days before he hopes to put it up for a floor vote.

Warring factions inside the House Republican Conference huddled with the speaker Thursday, jockeying primarily over what to do about SALT — the state-and-local-tax deduction.

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Another Republican involved in the talks, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said they were optimistic that the speaker would “pull a rabbit out of a hat again.” Negotiators in the room were working to find “a sweet spot” on SALT and things were moving in a positive direction, the Republican said.

Johnson, leaving the meeting at one point, told reporters he was committed to working through a slew of major issues potentially impeding passage of the party-line package central to enacting President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda.

“I’ve committed to working through the weekend on it,” Johnson told reporters. He added they would get to “a point” where it can go on the floor.

Hard-liners are pushing for deeper Medicaid cuts — including moving up the start date of the new federal work requirements embedded in the bill, which currently wouldn’t go into effect until 2029. Moderates are wary of making deeper cuts to Medicaid and are expecting to meet with GOP leaders later Thursday.

One key hard-right negotiator, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), left the meeting early after again panning the current bill in a morning TV appearance.

GOP leaders want to advance the megabill next week, sending it first to the Budget Committee Friday, then to the Rules Committee and — they hope — on to the floor.

“It’s going to come up in Rules on Monday, and we’ll be voting on it next week,” said House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), leaving the closed-door meeting Thursday.

That’s all well and good.

But the Speaker’s apparent PROCRASTINATION in dealing with these issues that are at the forefront of the debate definitely isn’t making people like him more.

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Quite the opposite, actually.

The Daily Caller posted this, announcing the vote had been canceled:

Here are a few of the comments and responses to that news, just to give you an idea of how Republicans are taking yet another day of votes cancelled:

It’s not even that Speaker Johnson is inventing issues.

He’s just simply not HANDLING those issues in a timely manner — and that seems to be a consistent issue with him!

He very accurately described the issue between the caucus focused on the SALT deduction (state and local tax) in the bill, and those focusing on the impact to Medicaid and the new work requirements.

But why did it have to wait until the last minute, when these are known issues?

Even with this week’s cancelled vote and ongoing contention among Republicans, Speaker Johnson is still saying he can get the bill to the floor next week for a vote and get it passed, according to The Hill:

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Thursday signaled that changes will be made to the party’s mega-bill full of President Trump’s legislative priorities in order to win support from conservative and moderate Republicans balking at some of its provisions.

Those alterations, he warned, will not only include a larger tax break for blue states that several Republican moderates are demanding but also steeper spending cuts elsewhere in the bill, as fiscal hawks raise alarm that the legislation does not do enough to rein in the ballooning deficit.

“If you do more on SALT, you have to find more in savings. So these are the dials, the metaphorical dials I’m talking about,” Johnson said, referring to the state and local tax (SALT) deduction. “When you’re trying to craft a piece of legislation that is this comprehensive and this complex, it requires a lot of thought and deliberation.”

The Speaker declined to elaborate on what specifically would be changed, saying only that “everything is on the table.”

Republicans from high-tax blue states — including New York, New Jersey and California — are calling for an increase to the proposed SALT deduction cap of $30,000 for individuals making $400,000 or more, arguing that it does not provide substantive relief for constituents. The issue has been one of the biggest hang-ups hampering the bill.

The next hurdle for the legislation — which is now officially titled the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” in recognition of Trump — is a House Budget Committee markup on Friday morning.

“We are still on path to pass this bill next week, to have it on the floor,” Johnson said. “That’s always been the plan, and I don’t see anything that would impede that right now.”

At least there is still light at the end of the tunnel.

And most of those meeting to find a consensus on their different points are tending towards a positive outlook.

But when everything out of the Speaker’s mouth concerning this bill is to blame House Democrats, I have to wonder — when did the Republican majority leadership give the Democrats say over canceling votes?

What has occupied all the House Republicans time for months, if not this?

Here’s a clip from Forbes uploaded to YouTube covering the Speaker’s comments about the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ and the vote:

For all the Speaker’s excitement and positivity about the bill, he acts as though Democrats are responsible for the lack of Republican consensus at this point.

Yes, as he said, Democrats will surely lie about the bill.

But deceitful Democrats didn’t cancel a vote on this legislation — he did.  Again.

And there is no proper response to that except to see it for what it is; a leadership failure.

As of today the differences still need to be ironed out.

But at least those who engaged with the Speaker on these issues exited a two-hour meeting in his office seemingly encouraged that a compromise could be found, according to a story by NBC News:

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is exploring ways to placate two rival factions who have emerged as the biggest roadblocks in the House to a massive bill for President Donald Trump’s agenda: blue-state Republicans who want larger tax breaks for their constituents and conservatives who want Medicaid cuts to kick in sooner.

“I am convinced that we’ll be able to adjust the dial, so to speak, so that we can come to an agreement that will meet the criteria that everybody has and that we can move this thing forward,” Johnson said after meeting with pro-SALT Republicans and hard-right Freedom Caucus members.

“That is the compromise that could work,” Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said.

Republicans have made steady progress on the bill this week even as some key issues remain unresolved. Eleven House committees have now passed their portions of the legislation, sending them to the Budget Committee to cobble together into one package.

The two sides on Thursday still remained far apart and Johnson said he expected talks to extend into the weekend, even as he has stuck by a Memorial Day deadline to pass the massive tax cuts, energy and border package through the lower chamber.

But moderates and conservatives emerged from Johnson’s office Thursday saying that their two-hour meeting was positive and that no red lines were drawn by either side.

It remains to be seen if the Speaker will actually be able to pull that ‘rabbit out of the hat’, as one anonymous Republican Representative was quoted.

It will be a particularly tall order to make it happen in time to meet his goal of having it on the President’s desk to be signed on Memorial Day.

And just to be clear — I’m not a Mike Johnson hater.  I actually celebrated when he won the speakership after doing a little research on him.

But here’s the problem: a strong faith (which I believe he has), and the ability to stay calm under pressure (he stays so calm you can barely hear him during some of his press conferences)… does not equate to good leadership.

Good leadership requires coordination, forethought, and executing to achieve the objective far more than it requires perfection and a calm demeanor.

I would probably love sitting down to have a Bible study with the Speaker, and I bet he’d make a great neighbor.

But Republicans are going to squander their majority if they don’t start EXECUTING on the agenda before them.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport.

View the original article here.


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