Where we stand with Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’

Do not underestimate the importance of Thursday’s meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky.

Those committee chairmen are looking for guidance from the president about what they need to put in the “big, beautiful bill.”

Republicans agree on broad principles. But specifics are the key to either passing or failing this bill.

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Most Republicans are willing to get behind the president. He has more power in this dynamic than the committee chairmen. But they have not yet scheduled their meetings to write details of the bill, because they aren’t sure exactly what the White House wants.

Congressional Republicans are just 26 days away from the Memorial Day deadline set by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to pass the bill. Multiple House committees hammered through their plans for the bill. But the two most important committees – Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce – still have not met.

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The Ways and Means Committee is in charge of writing the specifics of the tax policy. Energy and Commerce is asked to cut $880 billion. Some of that will touch on entitlement programs if the GOP truly goes that deep with cuts.

But already, Republicans are running out of track with such tight deadlines.

In the movie “Smokey and the Bandit,” country star Jerry Reed sings the title track, “Eastbound and Down.”

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The lyrics go: “We’ve got a long way to go. And a short time to get there.”

That epitomizes the problem facing congressional Republicans as they race to finish this bill soon – with the hardest decisions yet to be made.