Today’s notice: Republicans funded the government by promising to defund the government. Democrats debut a “trans rights? Never heard of it” strategy. And everyone likes getting mail.
So, Now What?
Donald Trump and Elon Musk gave their tacit approval of the three-month funding, disaster relief and farm bill extension deal, even though it did not include their desired two-year debt ceiling hike.
But their backing came at a price, of course.
As part of a handshake agreement, Mike Johnson vowed to pair $2.5 trillion in mandatory spending cuts with a $1.5 trillion debt ceiling hike next year. The deal has fiscal conservatives amped to cut costs in programs like Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and veterans benefits, and they’re confident they can identify and excise trillions in government waste.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna told reporters.
But other Republicans — including some who remember the Affordable Care Act repeal effort — think this agreement is mission impossible. Even if Republicans use the reconciliation process to override the Senate filibuster, it’s just too tall a task given the unruly GOP’s thin margins.
“My only complaint was that you need to tell us this a little bit sooner,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw told reporters. “I would love to clear the way. I will eat shit sandwiches of budget bills and debt ceiling increases so that Trump has a great runway, but you got to plan ahead to do that.”
“That’s just not what happened,” he said.
Democrats, meanwhile, are trying to keep their heads up as they brace for a potential legislative hellscape.
“I don’t know what Elon Musk is smoking, but I’m going to buy a pound of it,” Democratic Rep. Lou Correa said.
Democrats Get Candid About Not Wanting to Talk Trans Rights
Democrats are getting comfortable stepping away from broad support for trans rights, NOTUS’ Oriana González and Alex Roarty report. Kamala Harris’ campaign largely stayed silent on Trump’s anti-trans messaging, and Democrats don’t have a clearer plan now that she’s lost.
“I have no good answers. I am not clear, you know — it just simply could be the case that it’s a losing issue for Democrats,” Rep. Ritchie Torres told NOTUS. “I have not figured out what message would be effective at neutralizing that issue politically.”
Alex and Oriana talked to strategists, politicians and advocates about what happened with trans issues and what politically comes next. Democratic research has found that “people generally support another person’s need to transition to another gender, but recoil at anything they think questions the existence of more than two genders or suggests gender is nothing but a social construct.” With no messaging consensus, the early strategy seems to be: Wait for the conservative movement to take their anti-trans rhetoric so far that it turns voters off. Trans activists feel like they’re on their own.
“I don’t think people understand how bad this could get. It’s almost like we’re counting days to when there are some horrific developments on this front,” trans activist and Democratic strategist Charlotte Clymer told NOTUS.
Front Page
- Republicans Are Plotting $2.5 Trillion in Spending Cuts. Yes, Including Entitlements: The problem: No one seems to know how they’ll do this.
- Inside RFK Jr.’s First Sprint on the Hill: “Existentially, everything’s just fine,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski said about her meeting with Trump’s pick for health secretary.
- Where Does Fani Willis’ Georgia Elections Case Go Without Fani Willis?: “It was stupidity on the part of Fani Willis.”
Republicans Not Jumping On Privatized Post Office Idea
Republicans broadly agree with Trump that putting the private sector in charge of the Post Office and applying some profit-focused corporate austerity to its budget could be a great idea, NOTUS’ Emily Kennard reports. But! They also don’t want the USPS to stop doing things that lose a great deal of money, like making sure people even in the farthest-flung areas get their mail.
In a good example of what this sounds like, Sen. Roger Marshall told Emily “something major has to change” at USPS and “all options have to be considered.” But also: “What does privatizing it mean? Is it, ‘We’re going to still guarantee rural delivery? It’s a tough, tough nut to crack.”
Hey ChatGPT, Solve This Energy Problem
We know that AI is sucking up a ton of electricity — now we know exactly how much. Data center demand for electricity has doubled over the past decade and could double or even triple again by the end of Trump’s term, according to the results of a new extensive study ordered by Congress and conducted by the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.
That’s a big problem for Congress, because Americans are used to cheap and reliable electricity that they never have to think about. AI may change that.
—Anna Kramer
Not Us
We know NOTUS reporters can’t cover it all. Here’s some other great hits by… not us.
- Inside the Demise of DC’s Most Hated Political Watering Hole by Michael Schaffer for Politico
- Kyrsten Sinema: The exit interview by Burgess Everett for Semafor
- How fighting affordable housing nearly bankrupted one of America’s richest towns by Liam Dillon for the Los Angeles Times
- As landowners resist, Texas’ border wall is fragmented and built in remote areas by Zach Despart, Yuriko Schumacher and Uriel García for The Texas Tribune
Week Ahead
- Monday: Peak “people posting banal travel annoyances as though they are the first to experience them” expected. Also… potentially the House Ethics Committee’s Matt Gaetz report.
- Wednesday: Santa reveals 2024 “Naughty and Nice” list.
- Friday: National “How much would it cost to change our flight to an earlier one? Can’t hurt to check” day is observed.
—Evan McMorris-Santoro
Meet Us: Helen Huiskes
Welcome to “Meet Us” where we introduce you to a member of the NOTUS team. Up today is Helen Huiskes who is an AJI fellow and reporter covering Illinois.
- Hometown: Portland, Oregon
- Past: Wheaton College graduate, reported at Chronicle of Higher Education, Willamette Week and Washingtonian. Editor-in-chief of Wheaton Record student newspaper for three years.
- Why journalism: I’m passionate that my generation needs better, more informative reporting of the news.
- AJI highlight so far: Super practical tips on staking out members of Congress.
- Thing you can’t live without: Good television shows.
- Best advice you’ve ever been given: Solutions ruin problems.
Be Social: Feels Like You’re Trying to Tell Us Something
A South Carolina GOP consultant takes the direct approach toward one of his highest-profile former clients.
You can stop texting me. I fired Nancy Mace as client a few months back because I’m a political consultant and not a babysitter, a sex therapist or a doctor who can prescribe fixes for chemical imbalances. I don’t have time for her constant egotistical bullshit and drama in my…
— Wesley Donehue (@jwesleydonehue) December 20, 2024
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