{"id":1466,"date":"2026-06-11T23:13:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T23:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=1466"},"modified":"2026-06-11T23:13:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T23:13:05","slug":"republicans-are-giving-up-the-midterms-for-this-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=1466","title":{"rendered":"Republicans are ‘giving up’ the midterms for this reason"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

According to longtime Intelligencer political columnist Ed Kilgore<\/u>, there are \u201calarming\u201d signs that Republican lawmakers are \u201cgiving\u201d up on winning the midterms in favor of jamming through as much of their agenda as possible before losing power. Evidence, he suggests, is in the fact that they are now focusing on passing unpopular safety net cuts to fund President Donald Trump\u2019s unpopular war. <\/p>\n

Read more Florida choked by \u2018economy killer\u2019 for top industry \u2014 and leaders are MIA<\/a><\/p>\n

As Kilgore explains, you can see this trend emerging in Trump and the Republicans\u2019 multiple budget reconciliation bills. They\u2019ve just passed their second, which was kept \u201cskinny\u201d compared to last year\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill, which itself was, asserts Kilgore, \u201ca vast smorgasbord of conservative policy initiatives and attempted voter bribes.\u201d Republicans managed to keep reconciliation 2.0 narrowed to a few key priorities and thereby ensured its passage by promising to tackle all the other wide-ranging concerns held by different factions in a third bill before the midterms. <\/p>\n

But while Kilgore says those promises have included grandiose conservative dreams like replacing taxes with tariffs and killing Obamacare once and for all, \u201cthe bill will likely boil down to two essentials: paying for Trump\u2019s Iran War<\/u> and the massive defense buildup he\u2019s demanded<\/u>, and then offsetting those incredible costs by going after alleged \u2018waste, fraud, and abuse<\/u>\u2019 in federal safety-net programs, particularly Medicaid.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Kilgore explains, \u201cwaste, fraud, and abuse<\/u>\u201d are often Republican euphemisms for social programs they don\u2019t like, and such talk comes straight from party leadership. As he quotes Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) in the Hill:<\/p>\n

\u201cThune told reporters Tuesday that a third budget reconciliation package to fund defense is on the table but he cautioned that the new spending would need to be offset with spending cuts or revenue raisers to lessen the impact on the federal deficit. \u2018You would also have to have offsets in place,\u2019 Thune said. \u2018There\u2019s some discussion around waste, fraud and abuse savings that could be achieved through another recon bill.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018West Wing\u2019 star blasts Trump with profanity after White House co-opts show clip<\/a><\/p>\n

This sort of legislative action is wildly disliked, notes Kilgore, writing, \u201cRepublicans took one whack at alleged waste, fraud, and abuse in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and it was by far the most unpopular feature<\/u> of the generally unpopular legislation. Democrats are still campaigning on it every single day. So it\u2019s not exactly smart for Republicans to come back to the well so soon for additional safety-net cuts, particularly if their purpose is to finance unpopular wars \u2026 It will be a simple transfer of vast amounts of money from butter to guns, which is never especially advisable politically unless the war involved is strongly supported by voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Kilgore notes, the war is supported by a mere 37 percent<\/u> of voters, and the Republican Party seems perfectly willing to go along with it, a few notable defections<\/u> aside. At the same time, GOP lawmakers are pushing social cuts that are only going to hurt them electorally. According to Kilgore, the fact that they\u2019re doing all this regardless of the looming midterms raises a troubling conclusion. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf it does appear that congressional Republicans are going full bore into reconciliation 3.0 this summer, it may represent an alarming sign that the GOP is giving up on winning the midterms and wants to enact as much party-line legislation as possible before Democrats take away House or even Senate gavels,\u201d writes Kilgore. \u201cBehaving like a thief making one more grab before disappearing into the night is a bad look for a major political party. But Republicans do love defense spending and have hated the safety net since the New Deal, so the temptation to smash and grab could be overpowering.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s gives away the game with claim voters don\u2019t have \u2018appetite\u2019 for his war<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to longtime Intelligencer political columnist Ed Kilgore, there are \u201calarming\u201d signs that Republican lawmakers are \u201cgiving\u201d up on winning the midterms in favor of jamming through as much of their agenda as possible before losing power. Evidence, he suggests, is in the fact that they are no…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nRepublicans are 'giving up' the midterms for this reason - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=1466\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Republicans are 'giving up' the midterms for this reason - Next Address America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"According to longtime Intelligencer political columnist Ed Kilgore, there are \u201calarming\u201d signs that Republican lawmakers are \u201cgiving\u201d up on winning the midterms in favor of jamming through as much of their agenda as possible before losing power. 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