Who Is Mike Johnson?

My VIP for this week is Speaker of the House Mike Johnson for successfully “herding” all the members of the House of Representatives. In the words of George Caldwell at The Daily Signal, “Johnson has consistently beaten the odds throughout the first five months of the 119^th Congress, settling seemingly irreconcilable disagreements within the fractious House Republican Conference to advance President Donald Trump’s highest priorities. 

The House of Representatives has passed only one of Trump’s major executive orders – renaming the Gulf of Mexico to “the Gulf of America.” However, Johnson has been successful in moving “his caucus at the most important moments.” Caldwell shared four such moments.

1. Holding Onto His Gavel

After being somewhat of a divisive figure in the 118^th Congress, Johnson’s first fight in the House in early January at the opening of the 119^th Congress was to persuade his party to back him almost unanimously to be speaker again….

2. Continuing Resolution

One of Johnson’s earliest tests was passing a continuing resolution to continue spending levels from former President Joe Biden’s term and prevent a government shutdown.

Given Republicans’ reluctance to continue Biden’s policies – especially amid early excitement over the Department of Government Efficiency – winning over conservatives to vote for a continuing resolution was no easy task.

But Johnson was able to win over unlikely allies to this effort….

3. Senate Budget Plan

After Trump gave his endorsement to the Senate’s budget resolution in April, Johnson was forced to win over fiscal conservatives to vote for a plan that many of them felt was inadequate in terms of spending-cut targets.

Johnson accomplished that primarily by persuading the fiscal hawks that the budget plan – a necessary first step before budget reconciliation – was not something to fret over in the grand scheme of things.

Asked at the time what his case to these holdouts was, Johnson said, “Look, the resolution is not the law itself. The resolution continues the process; it’s a necessary step. So, the real deliberation and the consensus has to be built around the bill itself, and that’s what I’ve told everybody.”

4. Reconciling SALT and the Freedom Caucus

Johnson’s most recent triumph was winning the vote of holdouts from two stubborn factions – advocates of a higher cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions on federal taxes and members of the House Freedom Caucus.

A SALT deduction allows residents in high-tax states to deduct their state and local taxes on their federal tax returns. [While Trump’s 2017 tax cuts allowed up to $10,000 to be deducted on tax returns under SALT, Johnson first offered $30,000, which was raised to “a $40,000 cap with limitations on income levels for those eligible for the deduction… an extremely generous offer….”]

But Johnson’s real triumph came in managing to win over Freedom Caucus’ fiscal conservatives after appeasing the SALT caucus….

Nevertheless, Johnson was able to win over the Freedom Caucus members by bringing the bill to the floor for consideration Wednesday night and coordinating with the White House to persuade the holdouts.

Johnson also released a final draft from the House Rules Committee that included key concessions to the Freedom Caucus, such as earlier implementation of Medicaid work requirements (2026 rather than 2029), and an earlier expiration of Biden’s green energy tax credits.

The result was an odds-defying triumph for House leadership….