May 19th, 2025. The House Rules Committee will take up the Republican's omnibus bill this week.

Illustrating their confidence that the American people support this 1,116-page measure, enact acting much of MAGA's wish list, the committee has

set its meeting for Wednesday, May 21st, 2025, at 1 o'clock in the morning. The Republicans are

trying to advance Trump's entire agenda, from massive logging on public lands to slashing Medicaid,

in one giant bill under a process known as budget reconciliation, which means it cannot

be filibustered in the Senate. That means it needs only Republican votes to pass. But even Republicans

are deeply divided over the measure. While far-right Republicans

insist cuts to the social safety net are not deep enough because of the massive deficits the

measures tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations will create, other Republicans recognize that

Medicaid cuts are hugely unpopular.

According to a KFF poll released May 1st, more than 75% of Americans oppose such cuts.

Katie Edmondson of the New York Times counts 12 swing state Republicans who don't want

drastic Medicaid cuts and 31 hardliners who do. House Speaker Mike

Johnson, a Republican of Louisiana, can afford to lose only three Republican votes on the

measure. Nicole LaFond of Talking Points memo reported today that Trump will go to Capitol Hill

tomorrow to talk Republicans into voting for the

measure. Right on cue, the administration served up another issue to draw attention.

Trump lawyer Alina Haba, who is now serving as the interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey,

announced that Representative La Monica McIver, a Democrat of New Jersey,

will be charged with assaulting, resisting, and impeding law enforcement officers. On May 19th,

McIver was one of three Democratic representatives from New Jersey, who, along with Newark's Democratic mayor, Ross Baraka,

went to the Delaney Hall Immigration and Customs Enforcement Facility in Newark, New Jersey, for an oversight visit.

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