House Speaker Mike Johnson says the budget bill is the "most consequential legislation" in his lifetime so his main job is to work out any details holding it up and he's "very confident" they will get through that by the end of this week so they can "move this thing forward."
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00:00The House and Senate Republicans are utilizing the budget reconciliation process primarily
00:18because Leader Schumer in the Senate, Leader Jeffries in the House, and their Democrat
00:23colleagues refuse to engage in anything, no matter how meritorious, even to improve
00:29the lives of their constituents if it means that President Trump will somehow be credited
00:33with a win.
00:34I mean, it's really sad, but that's the fact.
00:36They'd rather put up, put on performative stunts and host these activist town halls and
00:40all this other nonsense than just work with us to bring costs down and make communities
00:45safer for their constituents.
00:47Just think about how the American people feel about these issues.
00:51Consider it.
00:52No, I don't make promises I can't keep.
00:55This is a consensus-building operation, as you know, and it's member-driven, bottom-up,
00:58and every single member of the conference has had many opportunities and has more this
01:03week to weigh in and let their preferences be known.
01:06This is about balancing preferences.
01:08I mean, no one's going to be surprised.
01:10Everybody knows where the touch points are on the final details of the final analysis,
01:14and we've been working really hard to take all the input and find that kind of equilibrium
01:19point where everybody is at least satisfied.
01:22Some people are not going to be elated by every provision of the bill.
01:25It's impossible.
01:26It's impossible.
01:27One big, beautiful bill.
01:28It's a big piece of legislation.
01:29There's a lot in it.
01:31So there's always going to be things page by page.
01:33Somebody can go through a large bill and find things that they would have preferred
01:37to be handled another way.
01:40But in its totality, this is going to be the most important, most consequential legislation
01:44that we'll ever be involved in in our lifetimes and arguably one of the biggest in the history
01:48of Congress.
01:49I think at the end of the day, we'll get that consensus.
01:52And, you know, there may be some grumbling about certain provisions, but as the whip said
01:56so aptly this morning in the conference meeting, he said, you got to focus on the totality
02:01of the bill and not just individual details.
02:04But my job is to work out those details.
02:05And look, I'm very confident that we're going to get to that point by the end of this week,
02:09and we'll move this thing forward.
02:11We've got some strong leaders in the Senate.
02:14They're all friends and colleagues of ours.
02:16We truly regard this as one team.
02:18I know that's an innovation in Washington.
02:20I know the House and Senate just will be fighting each other all the time.
02:23But that's not the game we're playing.
02:24And I've been very deliberate, and Leader Thun has as well, to have no daylight between
02:29the two chambers.
02:30So there shouldn't be any big surprises.
02:32I mean, they're following very closely what we're doing and vice versa.
02:35But the lion's share of the work has been done in the House, not by virtue of pride of
02:38authorship or because there's a competition between the two chambers, but just because
02:42that's the way the calendar fell.
02:45So we're going to be very proud of the product we send over there.
02:48I don't expect that it will take much modification.
02:50I hope that there's very little at all and that we can have an agreement.
02:54But the difference now and in years past, perhaps, is that our colleagues over there know
03:00exactly what we're doing.
03:01We're in careful, close communication and with the White House team as well.
03:06So we're not sending over some package, you know, that they'll receive blindly and not
03:09know what's in it.
03:10Everybody knows what we're working on and why and the discussions we're having and we're
03:14keeping them abreast of all of it.
03:16And if there are individual senators who have a problem, I'm apt to reach out to them myself.