Republicans in Congress have largely wasted the primary month of their new majorities bickering over how a lot spending to chop, which points to prioritize, and what number of payments to place ahead. Whether or not they have the votes to enact their formidable agenda stays unclear, however they’ve proven that they’ve simply sufficient to satisfy an equally essential goal: make sure that President Donald Trump can wage his assault on the federal authorities unimpeded.
Underneath the GOP’s watch, Congress has put up nearly no resistance whereas Trump and Elon Musk have shut down companies, sidelined hundreds of federal staff, and stopped congressionally accredited funds. As an alternative of defending their constitutional authority over spending, Republicans have cheered Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity and mocked Democrats for his or her protests. “In hopes of discovering themselves,” Home Speaker Mike Johnson advised reporters on Tuesday, “they’ve latched on to this new, shiny object referred to as the rule of legislation.”
The GOP’s acquiescence is another signal of how tightly Trump now controls his social gathering. Nevertheless it additionally reveals one thing elementary about Republicans’ haphazard makes an attempt over the previous twenty years to scale back the scale and scope of presidency. For all the social gathering’s fulminating in regards to the nation’s debt and deficits, Republican lawmakers have shied away from taking votes to slash spending that might show unpopular with voters. Now they’re content material to let another person intestine the federal government for them—and take no matter political warmth comes with it.
“They’re attempting to have it each methods—cheering those that are doing this work for DOGE without having their title on the precise payments,” former Consultant Bob Good of Virginia advised me. Good, the earlier chair of the arch-conservative Home Freedom Caucus, left Congress final month after dropping in a GOP major. He’s a fan of DOGE, however he has watched begrudgingly as a few of his ex-colleagues have applauded cuts to authorities bureaucracies similar to USAID and the Division of Training that they refused to impact by means of laws. When a fellow conservative provided an modification in 2023 to slash USAID funding by half, Good famous, a majority of Republicans voted alongside Democrats to defeat it. “They gained’t undergo any danger or present any braveness,” Good mentioned.
Former Consultant Reid Ribble of Wisconsin advised me that Musk is serving as a “patsy” for Republicans in Congress and for Trump, who has allowed the billionaire to shoulder the brunt of assaults from Democrats over DOGE. “They will now move off duty—and, extra importantly, accountability—to the nonelected person who’s doing this,” Ribble advised me.
Ribble was a part of the Home GOP Tea Social gathering class of 2010, which swept Democrats out of the bulk partly by promising to curb federal spending. Though deficits did come down over the following years, Republicans new to Washington found that rolling again authorities was simpler mentioned than carried out. Additionally they chafed at then-President Barack Obama’s makes an attempt to bypass congressional gridlock with government actions. As Obama used to say, “I’ve received a pen, and I’ve received a cellphone.”
The technique infuriated conservatives, recalled former Consultant Joe Walsh, an Illinois Republican and a onetime Obama antagonist who has since grow to be a vocal Trump critic. “When Barack Obama even checked out a pen, Jim Jordan and I’d scream,” Walsh advised me, referring to the Trump loyalist who helped co-found the Freedom Caucus. Now, he famous, the identical conservatives who challenged Obama’s unilateral strikes are effective with Trump’s rather more brazen use of government authority.
Ribble advised me that he’d lately implored a GOP Home member to “jealously guard” Congress’s energy over spending. “As a result of each single time you acquiesce to the chief,” Ribble mentioned he advised the lawmaker, “you’re giving them energy and precedent for the following man to do the very same factor.” His recommendation appeared to fall flat. In keeping with Ribble, the Republican replied: “Yeah, however I like what they’re doing.”
Not all Republicans in Congress appear thrilled. A number of, similar to Senator Susan Collins of Maine, have objected to the ability that Trump has given Musk. And others have labored to guarantee that their very own priorities—or these of their constituents—stay funded. However on the entire, congressional Republicans have both applauded DOGE’s actions, defeated Democratic makes an attempt to subpoena Musk, or stayed quiet. If something, the uproar over Musk’s marketing campaign has helped obscure their very own squabbling.
For greater than a month, Republicans within the Home and the Senate have been unable to agree on the sequence or scope of laws to advance Trump’s agenda. Senate Republicans need to first move a invoice to ship cash to bolster the southern border and the Pentagon earlier than turning to an extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. Home Republicans, nonetheless, need to package deal the border funding, tax cuts, and spending reductions into what the president has vaguely described as “one massive, stunning invoice.” Trump has supplied little route, and the 2 chambers have awkwardly raced in opposition to one another this week to advance their most well-liked laws in hopes of forcing lawmakers within the different chamber to relent.
A significant factor slowing Republicans down is the narrowness of their majorities, particularly within the Home, the place the social gathering will want digital unanimity to move something with out assist from Democrats. Good mentioned he hopes that Republicans in Congress will codify the non permanent cuts that Trump and Musk have made, however he has his doubts. “If we don’t do it within the first yr,” Good mentioned, “I don’t suppose it’s going to occur.”
Democrats, in the meantime, have tried in useless to power Trump and Musk to revive components of the federal government that the 2 have all however closed, together with USAID and the Client Monetary Safety Bureau. They’ve gained some early victories in court docket however don’t have the votes to behave on their very own in Congress. Democrats’ finest alternative might come subsequent month, when lawmakers should move laws to maintain the federal government from shutting down totally. In recent times, Republicans have turned to Democrats for assist in these funding fights, fearful that voters will blame them for the lack of companies that will consequence if the federal government closes. However some Democrats fear that they’ll have much less leverage underneath Trump, who presided over the longest shutdown in historical past throughout his first time period and has single-handedly frozen massive companies in his second. “We already know that he’s at finest detached to the results of a authorities shutdown,” Consultant Gerry Connolly of Virginia, the highest Democrat on the Home Oversight Committee, advised me. “He’s not afraid of it.”
Connolly and his colleagues might need to hope that GOP lawmakers—who face voters subsequent yr, in contrast to Trump—come to worry a well-liked backlash. Republicans have laid low throughout the chaotic early days of Trump 2.0, utilizing their majorities for little else in addition to defending the president and confirming his Cupboard. However quickly, the duties they’ve elided—funding the federal government and holding it operating—will fall squarely on them.
