https://issuesinsights.com/2025/02/20/while-the-white-house-sizzles-congress-bumbles/
In our lifetimes, we’ve never seen anything like what we are witnessing at 1400 Pennsylvania Ave., as the Trump administration sets the town ablaze with rapid-fire executive orders, mass firings, and DOGE investigations. The White House is “flooding the zone” with an unprecedented sense of purpose and urgency.
But a mile-and-a-half east on Pennsylvania Avenue, Republican lawmakers act like it’s just another day at the office at the U.S. Capitol – an attitude that could end up dooming Trump’s presidency.
So far, Congress has passed one bill. And it can’t seem to get its act together on the make-or-break “reconciliation” bill that will determine the future success of Trump’s second term.
This is in stark contrast to 2021, when Democrats handed Joe Biden his $1.9 billion “rescue plan” in record time.
Like Trump, Biden laid out what he wanted in that bill before he took office. The House and Senate got to work and passed a “budget resolution” on Feb. 5 of that year – the first step to getting Biden’s massive “rescue plan” passed through the filibuster-proof “reconciliation” process. The final bill hit Biden’s desk on March 11.
Today? House Republicans still aren’t sure they have the votes to get their budget resolution bill passed against opposition from moderates and fiscal hawks over spending cuts.
And the House can’t agree with Senate Republicans on whether to push for one big reconciliation bill – favored by the House – or two separate bills being pushed in the Senate. Any differences would then have to be ironed out in conference committee.
