Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) scored a big win in dramatic fashion this week after President Trump helped him muscle the GOP's budget resolution across the finish line.
But thornier issues are waiting just around the bend as the House and Senate seek to reconcile their budgets and avoid a government shutdown on March 14.
At the moment, House and Senate Republicans are on different pages as they embark on an effort to align the upper chamber's two-bill approach with the lower chamber's one-bill strategy.
Johnson is dealing with competing GOP forces that are in direct odds with one another, as Republican moderates worry about the potential impact of spending cuts on Medicaid while conservative fiscal hawks demand massive reductions in the deficit.
Johnson was asked how many changes he could stomach to the budget resolution that passed this week.
"As little as possible," he said. "We have a very small needle to thread here, and we have sort of an equilibrium point amongst people with competing priorities, and [if] we deviate from that too much, we have a problem."
Those remarks are in direct conflict with the view of Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who said the House resolution will need a "major overhaul."
"It's complicated. It's hard. Nothing about this is going to be easy," said Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.). "There are some things that we need to work with the House package to expand upon."
Among the sticking points: Senate Republicans want to make Trump's tax cuts permanent, which will negatively impact the deficit.
Johnson said a continuing resolution that temporarily funds the government to avoid a shutdown in just over two weeks is "becoming inevitable at this point."
The Speaker is also dealing with the specter of Elon Musk as Democrats seek assurances that any potential bipartisan funding deal won't be undercut by the Department of Government Efficiency's sweeping unilateral cuts.
Johnson says he'll meet with Musk and House Republicans soon.
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