Good morning. I'm Jake Sherman and welcome to the Daily Punch, brought to you by Punch Bowl News.

It is Thursday, February 20th, 2025. Let's get into the mix.

Here are your Washington headlines of the day.

Number one, Mike Johnson

talks to us about reconciliation. Number two, the regulations, Scalise wants to roll back. And number three,

can the two chambers get together on taxes? Let's get into it. A quick scoop, actually,

this morning at the top of Punch Bowl news. The D-Triple C raised nine and a half

million dollars in January, a record for the D-trip for the first month of an off year.

House Democrats outraised Republicans all last cycle and only need to flip a few seats to reclaim

the House majority in 2026. Now remember, Democrats also raised a lot of money last cycle

and lost, didn't win the House, they didn't lose the House, but didn't win the House.

Money doesn't mean everything but $9.5 million in January is a pretty good number. On to reconciliation.

The big story yesterday, which will impact where things go today, tomorrow and going forward,

was Donald Trump's decision to back the House's budget resolution.

This was a surprise to a lot of people, including me, including John Thune.

It was a message delivered on X just as, or on truth social, actually,

but just as Lindsey Graham and the Senate were about to begin their budget process in that chamber.

Johnson, Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, has been pushing the idea of one big,

beautiful bill using Trump's nomenclature, no surprise there.

And he believes for a lot of reasons, and this is, I'll just say this quickly,

this is one of these instances where I understand, it's not difficult to discern the

arguments of both sides, House and Senate, and why their plans the best.

...