House Republicans confront Iran war and gas prices as they struggle to push economic agenda

Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team have been struggling to find consensus behind an election-year agenda to address Americans’ chief concerns over affordability and their cost-of-living.

“Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team have been struggling to find consensus behind an election-year agenda to address Americans’ chief concerns over affordability and their cost-of-living”

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But now they have a new problem: Rising gas prices.

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After hammering Democrats relentlessly over $5-per-gallon gasoline, a threshold that was crossed when Joe Biden was president, Republicans are confronting a similar dilemma in the wake of President Donald Trump’s decision to wage war against Iran.

Gas prices are threatening to spike indefinitely with the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint where roughly 20% of crude oil shipments pass through, virtually shut down as a result of the conflict.

Republicans are left with this message: Just hope that the war ends soon and crude oil prices settle in time for November.

“Temporary blip,” Johnson asserted.

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“Snapshot in time,” said Rep. Lisa McClain, the No. 4 House Republican.

“Short-term volatility,” said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York.

Rep. Mark Alford of Missouri said Republicans need to convince voters to stomach the pain, adding, “I think it’s our job to help bring people along to them and explain what’s at stake,” and “I’m willing to pay 30% or 30 cents more at the pump to make sure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon that’s going to hit the United States.”

Johnson is leaning hard on Republicans to get behind another big legislative push this spring after successfully enacting Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act” last summer, but he’s facing growing doubts from within his own conference and in the Senate.

“Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team have been struggling to find consensus behind an election-year agenda to address Americans’ chief concerns over affordability and their cost-of-living”

CNN

Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, the top taxwriter, said it’s time to drop the effort and warned, “We have a smaller majority now than what we did when we passed the first reconciliation bill,” explaining he never saw a pathway for two reconciliations.

Some Republicans said they’ll need to pass a party-line bill to replenish munitions stocks depleted in the Iranian war effort; otherwise they will need at least seven Democrats in the Senate to help overcome a filibuster.

Republicans had an excruciatingly difficult time wrangling the votes to pass Trump’s massive bill last summer, and with an even slimmer House majority now, leaders will need near unanimity because any member with an objection would have outsized leverage and there are sharp divisions on what to include and how to pay for it.

At the three-day retreat at Trump’s golf resort in Doral, Republicans heard presentations from some of Trump’s senior advisers, including top White House aide James Blair and former campaign aide Chris LaCivita, who told members GOP groups are raising tons of cash and can defy the odds to hold the House.

Lawmakers said the challenge remains staying unified on message with a mercurial president and breaking through to voters as Iran and other crises dominate headlines; Rep. Dale Strong said, “People who are frustrated with the increased price of oil and gas. That’s to be expected,” but added, “But this is war.”

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The president’s top legislative priority has not been on an economic agenda but on passing the so-called SAVE America Act, a measure that would require proof-of-citizenship and voter ID to cast a ballot and has virtually no chance of passing the Senate; “It must be done immediately,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

“It supersedes everything else. MUST GO TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE.” House conservative hardliners are demanding that Johnson include the legislation into a party-line bill, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he doesn’t have the votes to bypass a filibuster, and Rep. Dan Newhouse, a retiring Washington Republican, warned that Trump’s focus on the bill is playing into Democrats’ hands and “It’s going to be part of the Democrat playbook.”