When Democrats reshape the U.S. health insurance system in 2010, Republicans accused them of various legislative foul cases: votes in the middle of the night. Behind the scenes transaction. A huge partisan bill blocked Congress in Congress until someone discovered everything. "Have you read the bill? Hell, you don't!" At the time angry House leader John Boehner thundered on the floor of the House.
Republican claims are exaggerated. But as Republicans rushed to President Donald Trump’s “Big and Beautiful Act” this week, they committed almost all procedural misconduct at the time, and even more. Spokesman Mike Johnson described the final text of a 1,100-page bill as "the most important legislation passed by either party," just hours before Republicans approved it by partisan votes. They plan to hold a key hearing at 1 a.m. and abandon their own rules to review legislation for lawmakers at least three days before the vote. A Republican even missed the climax call because he explained that he fell asleep.
"If it's a little beautiful, you won't do it after midnight," conservative critics of Kentucky's representative Thomas Massie scolded in a speech delivered by 2 a.m. Thursday.
To the Democrats who rush to blame them, Republicans answered their long-term process ended, as if saying, what goes around comes around. There are hypocritical people on both sides, and the passage of any major legislation is rarely smooth or beautiful. But the Republicans forced Trump’s agenda to be positively advanced in line with one pattern that emerged in every presidential term: rather than avoiding the illegal acts they claimed by Democrats to commit, they were used as a further license.
In 2017, the Republican Party confirmed to the Supreme Court only after Judge Neil Gorsuch nominated the Senate as a nominee to the High Court. As a reason, Republicans listed earlier moves by Democrats to reduce the Senate 60 votes and the executive branch nominees, a change that the Republicans condemned at the time.
Earlier this year, when Trump tried to freeze Congress-mandated funds and shut down federal agencies without the approval of lawmakers, I asked Republicans if there was a president that couldn’t cross. Their answer is not about Trump, but about Joe Biden. “Can the president do something unconstitutional in violation of what Congress completely wants?” asked Mario Díaz-Balart, a representative of Florida, and then quickly answered his own question: “Do you mean, like a student loan?”
As Díaz-Balart and other Republicans have seen, Biden has violated the First Congress, followed by the Supreme Court unilaterally forgiven billions of dollars in college debt starting in 2022. Democrats do provide the Republican for this argument: Nancy Pelosi, the then-rguerist, once said that the president said that the president could not eliminate his own debt. "He doesn't have that power. It has to be a Congressional act," she told reporters in July 2021. Then, Biden reacted rebelliously after the Supreme Court defeated Biden's $400 billion loan reality plan (although quoted Pelosi's statement). "The Supreme Court stopped me from eased my student debt. But they didn't stop me." "I'm going to keep going."
However, Biden also made it clear that he would not violate the court's rulings, but would develop more limited debt ruling plans in a way his administration considers "legal and legal." Now, rather than denounce the court as a restriction on the administration, Republicans claim it is an excuse for Trump to expand his presidential power more.
In the House this week, some Republicans are willing to convene their own parties in an attempt to catch up with such a far-reaching bill through the chamber. “It is Step on the accelerator and stuff it inbecause that's how this place works," Texas representative Chip Roy told reporters. "It's a mistake. "Roy is one of the ultimate conservatives, but like most of his Republican colleagues, despite his doubts about the process, he eventually voted for the bill, just like most major bills in Washington, he admitted in a statement that the bill has been rushed to the ground and has passed enough time to carefully review all items. We should have done better."
Until December, conservatives forced Republican leaders to abandon a 1,547-page spending bill to negotiate with Democrats, mostly as requested by Elon Musk, the then-coming governor. This time, no such rebellion has been achieved.
Johnson's Memorial Day deadline for passing Trump through the House is arbitrary. Congress must raise U.S. debt restrictions sometime this summer, and most Americans will increase taxes if lawmakers don’t expand the 2017 presidential tax cuts to the end of the year. Conservatives demanded that the bill be considered for another week or two, but Johnson and Trump successfully voted quickly with them so that the Senate could start working hard. Republicans hope Trump signs his second core titled A Large Bill Bill by July 4 and signs its leaders into law, and leaders on both sides understand that lawmakers rarely compromise without a forced mechanism for pressing deadlines.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told me: “Voters want results. They don’t want constant debate. “We can debate this in months and months and we won’t get any results for those struggling, which won’t help families that give us this task. ”
Scalis was his first term in Congress when the Democrats passed the Affordable Care Act. At the time, he joined Republicans accused them of rushing the bill without being transparent or debated enough. However, Democrats spent months on Trump’s legislation with Republicans spending several months more. When I asked Scalise how he would respond to critics saying that Republicans are doing what they criticize Democrats, he pointed to many committees that have held public hearings on the "Big and Beautiful Act" over the past few weeks (in 2010, the House held a similar meeting in 2010) and accused Democrats of trying to delay measures. "If Democrats want to keep dragging it and complaining about it going on late at night, it's a bit hypocritical," Scalis said. (In fact, it was the Republicans who arranged the key hearings for the Rules Committee, starting in the early morning.)
Other Republicans offer a different excuse: They are too young to remember the ACA fight. At that time, only 27 members of the Republican Convention served in the House of Representatives. "I'm not there. I'm not that old," Arizona's 66-year-old representative Andy Biggs told me. He joined Congress in 2017 and became a state legislator in 2010. We spoke on Tuesday, when Republican bills were still changing and conservative Biggs was still on the fence. "I always tell the speakers that if I don't have time to read the bill, I might not," Biggs said. Obviously, Biggs is a quick reader. Biggs is sure when the house voted for Megabill less than 48 hours later (about 10 hours after the final text was issued).