Trump budget and tariff agenda slowly getting through Congress

Donald Trump has had resistance from within regarding several key agenda issues, but he is finally wearing the opposition down.

To that point, Trump had two big victories this week as we head into the last weeks of getting that big, beautiful bill passed.

Resistance

Several members of the Senate have challenged Trump’s tariff plan, and while this was nothing more than a statement piece of legislation, it still matters that Trump was able to have it blocked.

Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) led the challenge to Trump's tariff plan.

Everyone knows that Collins and Murkowski have been fighting Trump tooth and nail since his first term, but Paul is a new addition.

Paul believed the tariffs were not the long-term answer and was hoping to have Trump’s powers on this front restricted, if not removed.

Defeated

When the legislation hit the floor of the Senate, the vote came down at 49-49, with Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) absent.

This was key because both were reportedly going to support the resolution. Their absence, however, allowed JD Vance to provide the tie-breaking vote to defeat it.

While the resistance believes the tariffs are only more taxes on the American people, Trump has defended them, asking for patience, stating, “I didn’t take over until January 20th. Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers. Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden ‘Overhang.’

“This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS, only that he left us with bad numbers, but when the boom begins, it will be like no other. BE PATIENT!!!”

Freedom Caucus Embraces Trump Budget

While members of the Freedom Caucus, to this point, have stated they would not support Trump’s budget, that just changed in a big way, much to Trump’s delight.

Members of the Caucus posted, "This is how you break the Swamp. Passing MAGA Republican priorities in reconciliation with Republican votes — ending Democrats’s leverage against the President in appropriations to fund the Left’s wasteful, woke and weaponized bureaucracy. The FY26 budget is a paradigm shift.”

Trump is increasing defense spending while ending discretionary spending. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought explained, "For Defense spending, the President proposes an increase of 13 percent to $1.01 trillion for FY 2026; for Homeland Security, the Budget commits a historic $175 billion investment to, at long last, fully secure our border. Under the proposal, a portion of these increases — at least $325 billion assumed in the budget resolution recently agreed to by the Congress — would be provided through reconciliation, to ensure that our military and other agencies repelling the invasion of our border have the resources needed to complete the mission.”

I will have to wait to see the full budget before I can fully chime in, but there is one aspect of the bill, if accurate, that I will never support. My understanding is that the proposal to not tax tips is still in the legislation, which I think is completely unfair to hourly and salary employees. Why does someone who works on tips get to have a tax-free income while the rest of us pay taxes? And I can tell you for a fact I know plenty of people who make well into six figures on tips, far more than I do, but now I have to pay taxes and they don’t? That is complete and utter nonsense, and I will never support that.