Ryan Schmelz joins JT live from DC

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joining us now. Our Fox correspondent in DC, Ryan Schmels,
is here to talk about where we are in this
budget they're working on here, and there seems to be
so many different and layers and what they're working on,
what should be included, what shouldn't be included, even amongst
the Republicans themselves. Ryan, welcome in. So where are we
in the process, first of all, and then we'll talk
about the difference between the President's budget and this big,

(00:21):
beautiful spending bill on the Hill. I think anyway, where
are we in the process?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Well, so there are the two big things to watch
for over the weekend are going to be the bill
text for the Ways and Means Committee and the Energy
and Commerce Committee. The region is because the Ways Means
Committee oversees taxes, Energy and commerce, overseas medicaid spending, where
the biggest arguments are happening right now among House Republicans. No,

(00:48):
that's going to be the big next step is when
that bill text comes out and kind of what to
expect with their committee hearings next week where they're going
to be marking up the bills, and that'll be a
big test to whether or not mix it to the
floor or not, and then gets the final passage. And then,
of course, there was the reporting yesterday that apparently President
Trump told Speaker Johnson in a phone call that he

(01:11):
would like to see taxes go up on the wealthy
in order to pay for some of these other tax
priorities that he's got pushing for in this bill, so
like no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, the
salt deduction increase. And I would like to point out
to you, I think I was on the show before
and you actually played the audio of me getting yelled
at by Speaker McCarthy when I actually asked about the

(01:34):
idea of raising taxes in order to pay for some
of the things that are Republicans have pushed for, like
work requirements and spending cuts.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Well, when you mentioned I think you're right too, by
the way, on that. But you know, when the President
talked to Johnson, the Speaker of the House, and said, hey,
I think we really had to look at raising some
taxes on the wealthiest in our country, how many heads
turns and jaws dropped in the Republican Party on that
one and Democrats as far as that goes.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Well, So, so President Trump has been floating this idea
for a while. It goes back a little ways, but
this was I think this reporting that we have here
is probably the most aggressive that Trump has been on it,
you know, going as far as to have a phone
call with the Speaker and say, hey, look, we're getting
down the crunch time. Maybe we should consider doing this
if we want to get some of the things that

(02:18):
we want across the finish line. It just I think
it's just really going to be hard though to see
enough Republicans being on board with that for it to pass.
But at the same time, it is President Trump, and
he does have a pretty big sway in the party.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah. I wanted to get your thoughts on the difference
between the President's budget and the Big Beautiful Spending Bill.
I thought the President's budget and ideas were the Big
Beautiful spending Bill.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Well, I would say the Big Beautiful Bill is more
of a policy bill. You know, it's called a budget resolution,
which makes it very complicated. But he's made it a
little bit easier by calling it the one Big Beautiful Bill.
Because the President's budget, which he has actually put out now,
is a thing that would actually fund the government starting
in October, when we hit the new fiscal year, and

(03:04):
so that would be pretty much, you know, everything that
funds the government, the one beautiful bill. It's pretty much
they call it a budget resolution, but essentially it's a
way for the president to get a lot of legislative
agenda items across the finish line without having to do
the fifty vote threshold in the sixty vote threshold in
the Senate. So yeah, it deals with things like taxes

(03:26):
and spending and things like that, but it's not, you know,
technically a true budget that that you would use to
fund the government for a foreseeable amount of time.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
All right, football reference on all of this, Where are
we as far as all of this being over, they've
come to an agreement and they pass something. Are we
on the fifty yard line? We first intend on the
twenty yard line? Where are we?

Speaker 2 (03:46):
I would say we're on the they're on the fifty
and driving, and that's for the house. You know, then
they've got a score. But then you've got the Senate
also has to do the exact same thing. So it's
kind of hard to explain because you know, we're just
focusing on the house. You'd say they're driving and they're
maybe in the other team's territory at this point past
the fifty yard line. But you know, that doesn't factor

(04:08):
in the fact that the Senate's got to go through
its process afterwards. But I think a lot of people say,
the first big task is just getting it through the house.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Yeah, we're driving, and then all of a sudden things
look good. What's another personal foul? Backup fifteen more yards? Yeah,
all right, right, thank you, buddy. I appreciate you have
a good weekend.