Tag: u.s. senate
Trump's Big Ugly Bill

More Than 20 House Republicans Now Opposing Trump Budget Bill

President Donald Trump was hoping that the House of Representatives would pass the U.S. Senate's version of H.R. 1 — his "Big Beautiful Bill" — as-is. But that looks to be increasingly unlikely.

That's according to a Tuesday article in Axios, which reported that a growing number of House Republicans are threatening to revolt over the changes the Republican-controlled Senate made to the legislation the House previously passed by a one-vote margin. According to one of Axios' unnamed Republican sources in the House, there are now "well over 20" House Republicans who are now against Trump's signature domestic policy package.

"Our bill has been completely changed," said Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), who is a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus. "It's a non-starter."

One of those Republicans is likely Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) who is another stridently conservative Freedom Caucus member. Ogles announced on his official X account that he filed an amendment that would delete the Senate bill's full text and replace it with the House's previously passed version.

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), who chaired the Freedom Caucus between 2019 and 2022, told Punchbowl News on Tuesday: "I’m talking to colleagues and I don’t know anyone who’s happy." Also on Tuesday, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) dismissed claims that the Senate bill was fiscally responsible as "garbage." The pushback from House Republicans comes despite Trump threatening GOP members of the House that they could "suffer the consequences" if they don't pass the legislation expeditiously.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) acknowledged the revolt within the House Republican Conference, but insisted he was focused on passing the Senate bill verbatim, so it could advance directly to President Trump's desk without having to go back to the Senate. He added he would "do everything possible" to pass the Senate version ahead of Republicans' self-imposed July 4 deadline.

"I'm not happy with what the Senate did to our product, but we understand this is the process. It goes back and forth. And we will be working to get all our members to yes," Johnson told reporters on Tuesday.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

John Fetterman

Fetterman Flatters Trump But Denies Rumors He Will Join Republicans

Sen.John Fetterman’s complex relationship with President Donald Trump has raised many eyebrows on the left, with some Democrats worrying he could switch sides, giving Senate Republicans a greater advantage in their current narrow majority.

Fetterman, the senior senator from Pennsylvania, was the first Senate Democrat to join Trump’s Truth Social website and the first Democratic Senator to visit Trump at Mar-a-Lago after the 2024 election.

“President Trump invited me to meet, and I accepted. I’m the Senator for all Pennsylvanians— not just Democrats in Pennsylvania,” Fetterman declared, Reuters reported.

He was also the first Democratic Senator to call for President Joe Biden to pardon Trump.

“The Trump hush money and Hunter Biden cases were both bullshit, and pardons are appropriate,” Fetterman wrote in his first Truth Social post, the UK’s The Times reported last month. “Weaponising the judiciary for blatant, partisan gain diminishes the collective faith in our institutions and sows further division.”

On Monday, he became the last Senate Democrat to sign on to a resolution condemning Trump’s pardons of over 1500 people convicted of crimes related to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the insurrection.

According to the Associated Press, “Fetterman has warmed to Trump so much that some in his party are quietly disavowing the man they supported in 2022, when the Pennsylvanian easily won a three-candidate primary and survived a stroke amid a high-pressure campaign to become the only Democrat to flip a Republican Senate seat that year.”

And he’s embraced Trump’s proposed Greenland grab, calling it “a responsible conversation.”

On Monday, Fetterman rejected the party switching rumors, declaring those who suggest he has made a “rightward” move are wrong: “it’s just happened not to be true.”

“I’ve been record too, saying, I am not gonna become a Republican, you know, although maybe some people might be happy on one side, but I would make a pretty terrible Republican because, you know, pro-choice, pro-really strong immigration pro-LGBTQ, uh, you know, just pretty, like, I don’t think I’d be a good fit, so I’m not gonna change my party.”

“I can’t keep chasing down every last thing that’s online, because they’re just happen not to be true and just look at my votes, look at the things that I haven’t changed,” Fetterman insisted.

Watch below or at this link:

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Nikki Haley

'Are You Trying To Lose?' Haley Rips Republican For Misogynist Remarks

One Republican U.S. Senate hopeful in a must-win race recently made a statement painting all women voters with a broad brush, and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley is urging him to stop harming his candidacy.

On Monday, businessman Bernie Moreno — who is facing off against Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in November — expressed frustration with women voters, characterizing them as "single-issue" voters when it comes to abortion rights, and even made a dig at women over 50. Moreno made the comment at a town hall in Warren County, Ohio, which is a swing county in the southwestern part of the state.

“You know, the left has a lot of single issue voters,” Moreno told the audience. “Sadly, by the way, there’s a lot of suburban women, a lot of suburban women that are like, ‘Listen, abortion is it. If I can’t have an abortion in this country whenever I want, I will vote for anybody else.’ … OK. It’s a little crazy by the way, but — especially for women that are like past 50 — I’m thinking to myself, ‘I don’t think that’s an issue for you.'”

Haley lambasted Moreno in a tweet on Tuesday including a portion of his comments and a link to an article on local NBC affiliate WCMH.

"Are you trying to lose the election?" She wrote. "Asking for a friend."

Moreno's comment could prove costly in Ohio's Senate race. The Buckeye State is reliably red, having voted for former President Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020 by comfortable margins. And it has a Republican trifecta state government, in which both chambers of the legislature and the governor's mansion are all under GOP control. But the abortion issue has been described as a "silver bullet" for Democrats.

Despite Ohio losing its swing state status, the 2023 election revealed abortion to be the GOP's Achilles heel. A solid majority of Ohio voters enshrined abortion rights into their state's constitution last fall, continuing abortion rights' undefeated streak on state ballot measures since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Because Republicans are currently two seats in the minority in the U.S. Senate, Moreno's campaign is all the more crucial to the GOP in its efforts to retake the upper chamber of Congress. FiveThirtyEight's aggregation of Ohio U.S. Senate polls show the race between Moreno and Brown is within the margin of error, and it could very well be decided by women voter turnout.

Assuming West Virginia's open Senate seat — following the retirement of Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) — goes to the GOP this fall, Republicans will only need to flip one more Senate seat in order to retake the majority. This means winning either Ohio's Senate race or defeating Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) in November. While Tester is between five and six points behind Republican Tim Sheehy in polls, he leads him in overall cash on hand by roughly $10 million heading into October.

Elsewhere, Republicans are finding themselves in tougher-than-expected Senate races in the reliably red states of Florida and Texas. Former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-FL) and Rep. Collin Allred (D-TX) are both within the margin of error of Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX)

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Senate Democrats Still Outpacing Republicans In 2024 Fundraising

Senate Democrats Still Outpacing Republicans In 2024 Fundraising

Republicans can win back control of the U.S. Senate by flipping two Democratic seats. But that may prove difficult if the GOP continues to get out-worked by the Democratic Party's fundraising machine.

A Friday report by Bloomberg's Bill Allison revealed that despite having the support of conservative billionaires like investor Ken Griffin and the Charles Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity infrastructure, the GOP is still unable to catch up with Democrats in the 2024 money race. As of March 31, Ballotpedia's tally of party committee fundraising shows that Democrats and their affiliated House and Senate campaign arms have raised a total of $462.2 million in the 2024 campaign cycle, with $157.3 million in cash on hand. Republicans and their congressional fundraising operations, on the other hand, have raised $375 million with $114 million on hand.

"The money woes are a headwind for Senate Republicans, who seek to win a majority to pursue legislation to bolster US-Mexico border security and renew expiring tax cuts," Allison wrote. "It’s also a warning sign for presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, who needs to win many of the same states hosting crucial Senate races."

Currently, the math favors Republican Senate candidates far more than Democrats, with the GOP only having to defend 11 seats compared to Democrats' 23. The most competitive Republican contests are in reliably red states, where Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) are seeking their second and third six-year terms, respectively.

Democrats, however, are in a far more precarious position, with several senators in highly competitive races hoping to win another term in states where Trump won easily in both 2016 and 2020. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is not seeking another term, and Republicans are expected to easily win that seat given that the Mountain State went for Trump by double-digit margins in the last two elections.

This means that the GOP — which currently has 49 U.S. senators — could win back the majority by taking just one of the close contests in either Arizona, Montana, or Ohio. After Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) announced she would not be running for reelection, the Grand Canyon State's Senate race will be between Republican election denier Kari Lake or Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ). Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) is seeking a fourth term in November, and is the lone Democrat representing a statewide seat in the Big Sky State, which Trump also won handily in both 2016 and 2020.

Ohio's U.S. Senate race may be the most expensive, given the Buckeye State's wealth of Electoral College votes (17 in 2024), longtime incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown's (D-OH) bid to keep his seat for a fourth term and the surprising result last year to permanently enshrine abortion rights in a now-comfortably red state that Trump won in both of his past campaigns. Ohio Republicans nominated Bernie Moreno in last month's primary, who has indicated support for a national abortion ban after 15 weeks of gestation.

Allison reported that the GOP has attempted to shore up its fundraising gap with Democrats by recruiting wealthy candidates who are able to invest large sums of their own personal wealth into their own campaigns. But GOP candidates are even trailing in those races with the exception of businessman Eric Hovde in Wisconsin, who slightly outperformed Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) in first quarter fundraising by loaning his campaign $8 million.

Businessman Tim Sheehy, who is running against Tester in Montana, is one example of that strategy in practice. The former Navy SEAL who launched his own aerial firefighting business has raised $8.3 million so far in the 2024 cycle, and has $1.9 million in cash on hand according to data compiled by Opensecrets. However, Tester is running up the score with more than $32 million raised and $12.6 million in cash on hand.

Trump's own legal woes could also be holding back the GOP from investing more in down-ballot races like the Arizona, Montana and Ohio Senate races. After his daughter-in-law Lara Trump was elected as co-chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC), the Trump campaign and the RNC entered into an agreement in which Trump's affiliated PACs — which help pay his legal expenses — get a cut of funds raised by the RNC before they actually go into the RNC's own accounts. The former president not only has two massive civil judgements adding up to a hefty nine-figure sum to contend with, but he is also having to pay to defend himself from 88 felony counts in three separate jurisdictions this year.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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