Big Beautiful Bill Chaos: Senate Rules

Uncov­er the dra­ma sur­round­ing the Big Beau­ti­ful Bill stalled in the Sen­ate, with Eliz­a­beth Mac­Do­nough, the Sen­ate Par­lia­men­tar­i­an appoint­ed by Har­ry Reid, under fire for enforc­ing the Byrd Rule. Learn why Med­ic­aid cuts for undoc­u­ment­ed chil­dren were struck down, how John Thune could have replaced the par­lia­men­tar­i­an. Dis­cov­er how broad­band fund­ing in the bill hides a “Tro­jan horse” for politi­cians’ pock­et mon­ey, and why Trump demands the bill pass with­out changes to meet the dead­line. Get the truth on Sen­ate rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, the Byrd Rule, and the fight for a sim­ple major­i­ty vote.

• The big Beau­ti­ful Bill has been in the Sen­ate for some time. There is a bunch of noise about the par­lia­men­tar­i­an. Eliz­a­beth Mac­Do­nough is the Sen­ate Par­lia­men­tar­i­an. Now repub­li­cans have the major­i­ty of the Sen­ate and they can make rules and rule changes. The Sen­ate Major­i­ty leader does appoint a par­lia­men­tar­i­an. We don’t know if she is a woke par­lia­men­tar­i­an, she was appoint­ed in 2012 by Har­ry Reid. She presided over both impeach­ment tri­als of Trump. She has to make sure that the rules are fol­lowed for every bill. When you have a rec­on­cil­i­a­tion bill, you have to fol­low the Byrd rule that the bill has to deal with bud­get items.
• Med­ic­aid is not sup­posed to go to ille­gals. But if you have a child that has a sta­tus that is unde­ter­mined they get med­ical. John Thune has known for a month that the Par­lia­men­tar­i­an was going to strike down the cuts. 
• They want to blame the Par­lia­men­tar­i­an. Why now? John Thune could have replaced her when he was elect­ed to major­i­ty leader. 
• The Byrd rule named after Sen­a­tor Robert Byrd, is a sen­ate rule that restricts the inclu­sion of extra­ne­ous pro­vi­sions in bud­get rec­on­cil­i­a­tion leg­is­la­tion. It defines what is con­sid­ered extra­ne­ous and there­fore inel­i­gi­ble for inclu­sion in rec­on­cil­i­a­tion bills, a process used to pass bud­get leg­is­la­tion with a sim­ple major­i­ty in the Sen­ate, a 51 vote to pass. 
• The par­lia­men­tar­i­an is to go through the bill to remove items that are not relat­ed to the sub­ject of the bill. She has been doing this for years. Bud­get rec­on­cil­i­a­tion bills are expe­dit­ed pieces of leg­is­la­tion hav­ing to do with spend­ing, tax and debt lim­its. These types of bills can be passed with a sim­ple major­i­ty because they have a time lim­it on floor debate, mean­ing that the sen­ate and House nev­er have to reach the 60% vote thresh­old required to end debate. 
• MTG is adamant­ly opposed but she vot­ed to send it to the Sen­ate. She didn’t read the bill before vot­ing on it. 
• For the bill to pass the bill it will have to pass the Sen­ate, go to the House and be vot­ed on straight up in the House with­out any changes for it to make the dead­line. 
• They are putting mon­ey in the bill for broad­band, this is pock­et mon­ey for politi­cians. We have been fund­ing high speed inter­net for 20 years, so they can take a lit­tle off for them­selves. The mora­to­ri­um pro­pos­al trans­forms a broad­band bill into a nation­al tech pol­i­cy Tro­jan horse. Med­ic­aid changes don’t meet Sen­ate rules in the Big Beau­ti­ful bill, says par­lia­men­tar­i­an. Trump has already said to get the trou­ble­mak­ers out of the way, pass the bill and send it to his desk.