DORAL, Florida — Vice President JD Vance told House Republicans in a closed-door meeting Tuesday that President Donald Trump still prefers to address the approaching debt limit in the GOP’s big party-line reconciliation package. But Hill leaders are making other plans.
Vance, speaking at the House GOP retreat in Florida, said that way Republicans don’t need to negotiate with Democrats to lift the debt ceiling, according to two Republicans in the room who were granted anonymity to describe the private remarks.
But given internal divisions among Republicans over the borrowing limit, House and Senate GOP leaders are increasingly likely to incorporate a hike in a government funding negotiation with Democrats.
Vance also urged members to not get bogged down in minutia when writing a budget resolution, a first step in the party-line reconciliation process. Some Republicans took that as a directive to make the blueprint as vague as possible — targeting floors for spending cuts that can be altered later on in the process.
The people in the room said Vance’s bottom-line message to GOP lawmakers was: Fall in line and deliver on Trump’s agenda.
Afterward, some House Republicans had their own message: If only it were so easy.
“It is going to be a difficult next few weeks,” said Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), a key negotiator who heads the Main Street Caucus.