Three Senate Republicans balked at their party’s domestic policy megabill — the inaptly named One Big Beautiful Bill Act — but opponents of the far-right package needed a fourth. They thought Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska would rescue the nation from the consequences of the radical legislation, but GOP leaders offered a series of carve-outs and schemes that would help shield her home state from the effects of the party’s agenda. She took the deal.
But after Murkowski cast the deciding vote, she did something unexpected. In fact, she took two unexpected steps.
First, the Alaskan trashed the reconciliation package shortly after voting for it, which was every bit as odd as it sounds. “Do I like this bill? No,” she told NBC News. The senator added, by way of social media: “[L]et’s not kid ourselves. … While we have worked to improve the present bill for Alaska, it is not good enough for the rest of our nation — and we all know it.”
Second, Murkowski effectively asked the Republican-led House not to pass the bill she had just voted for. “My sincere hope is that this is not the final product,” she wrote online. “This bill needs more work across chambers and is not ready for the president’s desk. We need to work together to get this right.”
That came on the heels of related comments the GOP senator made to reporters on Capitol Hill. “We do not have a perfect bill by any stretch of the imagination. My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.”
Not only did House Republican leaders ignore Murkowski’s appeals, they never even considered the possibility. Politico reported:
House GOP holdouts who wanted a last-minute rewrite of President Donald Trump’s megabill never had a chance, Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in an interview Thursday. ‘For a long time, there were members that really thought there was a chance the bill was going to get opened up again to amendment,’ the Louisiana Republican said as the House neared a final vote on the bill. ‘It became clear from the president’s meeting at the White House to further conversations later that, for all the back and forth, you know, the bill’s closed, there’s going to be no more amendments to the bill.’
And that, of course, makes Murkowski’s decision look even worse.
The Alaska Republican not only had an opportunity to derail the most regressive proposal in at least a generation, she also had an opportunity to use her considerable leverage to make it better. Instead, Murkowski passed the buck, hoping the House might help clean up the mess.
These misguided wishes led her to vote for a bill that, by her own admission, “is not good enough” for the nation and “not ready” to be signed into law.
Too many GOP lawmakers somehow convinced themselves that the party’s megabill had real merit and would deliver great results. Murkowski, however, knew better — and she chose to advance it anyway. History will not be kind.
