Almost exactly one year after Congress swore off self-inflicted fiscal crises—promising to embrace “regular order” and “responsible governance” and “showing up for work”—we’re back to the same tired theatrics. This time the dysfunction isn’t just about spending and debt; it’s a preview of the Trump administration’s unpredictable rule and the GOP’s ongoing internal identity crisis.
At the heart of this melodrama is a fight between two Republican factions. One side is dominated by tax reformers, who are pushing for a single “big, beautiful bill” to encapsulate the entire GOP legislative agenda: tax cuts, spending cuts, energy reforms, and border security. They find this approach appealing because in theory it’s easier to get a coalition together once and use the budget reconciliation process
to shovel through everything that can plausibly be considered a fiscal matter without having to reckon with the Senate’s
60-vote filibuster. (The GOP will have a 53–47 Senate majority and a 220–215 House advantage, at the very most.) They also have one strong wind at their backs: the prospect of a truly terrifying New Year’s Eve if the 2017 tax cuts are allowed to lapse at the end of 2025. But tax bills are complicated, and budget bills are more complicated still.
On the other side are the immigration hawks, who want to leverage a slim majority to push through a nativist wish list, including border wall funding and stricter limits on legal immigration. They say tax matters can be dealt with in a second bill later on, offering the classic “hamburger today for a dollar tomorrow” deal. This type of deal is almost never honored recently, so the tax reformers are right to be nervous. This isn’t just a battle over legislative priorities; it’s a referendum on what kind of party the GOP wants to be.
The tax people—for all their flaws—are at least speaking a language recognizable
to voters who care about reducing the federal fiscal footprint. Tax cuts mean more freedom to spend your own money, less government interference in economic decisions, and maybe even a little less red tape. The immigration folks are another story. Their playbook is about stronger government controls. Walls, bans, and ever more draconian enforcement mechanisms don’t just restrict immigration; they restrict liberty. The human cost is borne not just by migrants but by Americans who find themselves living under an ever-growing surveillance state.
Right now, the tax team has the upper hand. The one-bill idea has emerged as the favorite approach among GOP leaders. They reason that combining tax reform and immigration measures into a single package might streamline negotiations and reduce opportunities for internal rebellion. Big bills are subject to their own set of problems, of course, including expensive sops to buy individual votes and the inevitable situation where no one has time to read the legislation before passing it because it is simply more words than anyone can process. While we can be sure the bill will be big, beauty is—as always—in the eye of the beholder.
Enter newly inaugurated President Donald Trump, the wild card in chief. As usual, everyone’s waiting to see what he wants because no one really knows. He may not know—one day he’ll say he supports one bill, the next he’ll say two might be a better bet. Will he side with the fiscal conservatives who want to keep their focus on tax reform? Or will he indulge the immigration hardliners, even if it means blowing up the broader GOP legislative strategy? This is the high-stakes drama of D.C. now and for the next four years. Trump’s unpredictability is his best tool for winning the battle he cares about—the fight for the spotlight. He continues to revel in his starring role as the final arbiter of GOP priorities.
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The bigger fiscal picture is downright grim. The federal debt held by the public stands at $29 trillion, a number so large it’s hard to comprehend. Last year’s debt ceiling deal was supposed to impose new spending limits, but Congress is already finding creative ways around them.
Budget gimmicks and off-book maneuvers ensure that the spending spree continues unabated while taxpayers are left holding the bag.
This isn’t the first time Congress has stumbled into a fiscal showdown. For decades, budget disputes have served as proxy battles for deeper ideological divides. Whether it was the government shutdowns of the 1990s, the debt ceiling standoffs of the Obama years (and their remix with different partisan alliances
under Trump), or the endless fights over appropriations bills, the same pattern repeats: lofty rhetoric about fiscal discipline, followed by backroom deals that kick the can further down the road. Both parties share blame for the long-term
erosion of accountability. Democrats keep calling for expansive government programs. Republicans refuse to tackle
entitlements—the real drivers of debt—while still clamoring for tax cuts.
Some GOP members have tried to sound the alarm about the long-term consequences of runaway spending. But their warnings are falling on deaf ears. Instead, the focus remains on immediate political wins, with the party’s factions locked in a battle of priorities. The immigration hawks insist on wall funding as their red line, while the tax cutters demand that any legislation include deep reductions for corporations and high-income earners.
Our eternal budget week is more than just a legislative circus: It’s a window into the soul of the GOP and a harbinger of what’s to come. If Republicans can’t agree on a coherent strategy with their current trifecta, what happens when the gridlock inevitably returns? If they do choose to punt on fiscal matters in Trump’s first days, what hope is there for meaningful reform down the line?
The Trump era promised disruption,
and it has delivered—but not in the way
fiscal reformers might have hoped. Instead of shaking up the status quo in favor of smaller government and greater freedom, it has created new avenues for dysfunction and centralized power. The GOP’s inability to govern effectively is both a symptom and a cause of this larger problem. Until the party figures out what Republicans stand for—beyond just winning the next news cycle—you can expect the chaos to continue.
This article originally appeared in print under the headline “A Big, Beautiful Bill?.”
