Process is never pleasant, but life in DC is life of process.

If you've kept track, we are still arguing about whether we are doing the "one bill" approach or the "two bills."

Well, the answer seems to be in, and its…nobody knows?

President Trump finally made clear that he endorsed the "one bill" approach. He had previously said that he favored it while leaving the door open for the Senate's "two bills" approach.

He was probably moved to clarity by Senate Budget Committee Chair (and notorious Trump non-fan) Lindsey Graham's release of a budget bill. Sen. Graham took advantage of the combination of Trump's lack of clarity and (especially) the Speaker's complicated internal math.

Punchbowl recently reported that the House is moving ahead with its plans, with a scheduled vote next week on its budget plan. "The House’s bill includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, coupled with at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts. It would increase the debt limit by $4 trillion. The package is likely to include cuts to Medicaid and will certainly put House GOP moderates in a tough position."

So what's the problem?

Well, Senate Majority Leader John Thune has gone ahead and endorsed Graham's budget, which is a "skinny" bill, and therefore the two-bill approach. This is the first time in the new Administration that a leader in Congress has defied the President. The Senate bill includes $340 billion in new Pentagon and border security money.

What's next?

Who knows. The House and the Senate seem to each be moving forward with their respective approaches, which is what Republican leaders had been trying to avoid since the Transition.

Policy News You Need To Know

#Chyna #Trade — The New York Times has an inside look at the White House's trade negotiations with China. "According to a former diplomat, who declined to be named to discuss private conversations, one Chinese offer could include investments in the United States that would create an estimated half a million jobs in industries like solar, electric vehicles and batteries."

#Trade #Tariff #VAT — Speaking of, President Trump has decided that the VATs that European countries love (and are in fact required by European treaties to use) are tariffs, and that he will reciprocate with tariffs. The Tax Foundation has a good explainer explaining that that's not true.

#Life — President Trump has announced an EO tasking the domestic policy council to come up with proposals to force insurers to cover IVF and find every other way to reduce the cost and increase coverage of IVF. This was framed as being "pro-family" and "pro-baby". It will doubtlessly incense social conservatives, as IVF destroys or at least freezes embryos. It will also probably be popular. Unlike in France, in the US, the land where consumerism is sacred above all, IVF is extremely popular.

#ArticleII — Unitary executive! In one of those "let's go" moments, the President has published an EO formally declaring his executive authority over independent agencies under the unitary theory of the executive. "it shall be the policy of the executive branch to ensure Presidential supervision and control of the entire executive branch" What's more, "all executive departments and agencies, including so-called independent agencies, shall submit for review all proposed and final significant regulatory actions to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Executive Office of the President before publication in the Federal Register." As stated, this is, of course, revolutionary. Two things remain to be seen: first, how far will the White House go in the implementation; and especially, if the head of an "independent agency" refuses to comply, does the White House fire him? And if he refuses to leave his job?… Second, of course, what the courts will make of it.

#PriceOfEggs — In the last days of the Biden Administration, fears about "bird flu," aka H5N1, caused the government to order a mass culling of birds. This has in turn caused the price of eggs in the US to skyrocket. Brownstone Institute's Clayton J. Baker, MD has a good explainer on what is actually happening with bird flu. Brownstone Institute has consistently put out some of the best work out there on public health.

#AI #AGI #ASI — An "AI co-scientist" created by Google has made a significant discovery. The theory is that AI could lead to infinitely many scientific breakthroughs as one could create arbitrarily many "co-scientists" generating new hypotheses and bouncing them off each other. That second bit is still just a theory. But an AI originating an important scientific theory that ended up being true is still a momentous step.

#Ed #K12 — We live in an age where saying that the sky is blue or that two and two equal four can be controversial. Speaking of: apparently there is a large movement of education "scholars" who believe that teaching children facts is discriminatory and (probably) racist. AEI's Robert Pondiscio writes that "Cognitive science has demonstrated repeatedly that knowledge is essential for making sense of texts. Suggesting otherwise is misleading—and potentially harmful to students who need it the most." Stuff like this is why "gutting" Ed is such a bad idea. It would still leave kids in half of US states in the clutches of absolutely deranged theories of education, of which DEI is merely the tip of the iceberg. The Trump Administration must use the power of the Federal government to ensure kids are taught properly.

#K12 — Speaking of, astonishing stat: “70% of high school students report their teachers say that ‘America is fundamentally racist'.” Again: block grants will not fix this. We need to rescue our kids.

#SettingSun — The outlook for the solar industry in 2025 is not good. The Biden Administration showered them with subsidies and incentives that the Trump Administration is already getting rid of. "The Energy Information Administration, in its Short-Term Energy Outlook, is predicting a slowdown in the deployment of solar capacity in the United States, even before the Trump administration begins examining the technology’s relative costs and benefits to U.S. energy and economic security," writes the Institute for Energy Research.