TENSION ARE ALSO HIGH in the Senate,where Republican members with backgrounds in the armed forces are taking on Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) over his hold on military promotions. The group of Republicans, led by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), pushed the intraparty disagreement over how to resolve Tuberville’s holds into the public sphere last week with a floor effort to move forward on 61 promotions. Tuberville blocked each one.
At present, Tuberville is holding up more than 370 promotions to protest a Pentagon abortion policy. The holds are in their eighth month and Senate Republicans are getting increasingly frustrated. Wednesday’s attempts to move nominees — which Democrats have repeatedly attempted, but Republicans had not before last week — was a clear example.
“It’s come to a head,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) told The Hill. “We’ve done our best to try to work through the issues, but with everything going on in the world, it’s time to address the concern.”
Democrats and progressive advocacy groups are homing in on Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) past support for steep cuts to entitlements, as the new speaker embraces a deficit commission that could spotlight the issue in the runup to the 2024 election.
President Biden called out congressional Republicans during his State of the Union address for wanting to cut the program. While budget experts say Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are unsustainable in their current form, most Republicans acknowledge the political risks of wanting to shrink benefits — but are also opposed to tax increases to bolster the programs.
Johnson’s fervent support for trillions of dollars in cuts during his time as chairman of the Republican Study Commission (RSC) could be a blueprint for GOP budgets if they win control of the government.
“The greatest threat to our national security is our nation’s debt,” Johnson said during his first speech in the House chamber after he was elected Speaker. “We know this is not going to be an easy task and tough decisions will have to be made, but the consequences if we don’t act now are unbearable.”
Johnson promised to establish a bipartisan debt commission “immediately,” and indicated at a press conference this past week that he was close to naming members.
The idea for a 16-member debt commission that would examine Social Security and Medicare solvency was initially floated by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as part of debt limit negotiations.
Entitlements have long been a political third rail, but some in the GOP wanted to use the debt ceiling negotiations to extract promises to reduce entitlement spending.
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid currently make up nearly half of the entire federal budget, with a total annual price tag of $2.7 trillion.
