Johnson says megabill will be ‘jet fuel’ for economy; teases 2 future bills within next year
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Sunday that President Donald Trump’s megabill will be “jet fuel” for the economy despite Democrats’ criticisms. Johnson, who ceremoniously handed Trump the gavel after the president signed his signature tax cuts and spending package into law Friday, teased two future bills to be passed within the next year. In an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” he said the “big, beautiful bill,” which is “a huge leap forward for our priorities,” is the first step in a three-tier strategy. Johnson expects a second reconciliation bill by fall and a third by spring before the end of the current Congress. “I think we can do that, and so you’ll see more of us advancing these common-sense principles to deliver that American First agenda for the people,” Johnson said. “That’s what they elected us to do, and this was hugely forward.” Johnson pushed back on a reported Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) memo claiming Republicans will lose the majority in 2026 as a result of the “big, beautiful bill.” TRUMP SIGNS ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL’ BILL IN SWEEPING VICTORY FOR SECOND TERM AGENDA, OVERCOMING DEMS AND GOP REBELS “Our Republicans are going to be out across the country telling the simple truth, and guess what? It will be demonstrated,” Johnson said. “Everyone will have more take-home pay, they’ll have more jobs and opportunity. The economy will be doing better, and we’ll be able to point to that as the obvious result of what we did. So don’t buy into those false talking points.” The speaker dismissed criticisms from Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and DNC Chair Ken Martin in particular as “old, tired talking points” that are typically used against any Republican tax legislation. Johnson stressed that the bill permanently extends the 2017 Trump tax cuts, which the speaker claims targeted lower- and middle-income Americans. He said the bottom 20% of earners witnessed their lowest federal tax rates in 40 years because of those original cuts and said that the new megabill expands on that by cutting taxes on tips, overtime pay, and seniors – benefits that he says will help Republicans during the 2026 midterm elections. “We’re giving everybody a tax cut,” Johnson told “Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream. “And that’s going to help the economy, it’s going be jet fuel. Small business owners, entrepreneurs, risk-takers, the people that provide the jobs, manufacturers, farmers get assistance here, and that will lift the economy.” Citing the Council of Joint Economic Advisers, Johnson said the megabill will spur 3% economic growth, create 4 million jobs and increase the average household’s take-home pay by $13,000. “This is a great thing for people who go to work every day,” Johnson said. “They’re going to feel that. And we’re excited about the upcoming election cycle in ’26. Because people will be riding an economic high, just as we did after the first two years of the first Trump administration. This time it’s on steroids.” ZELENSKYY TOUTS ‘FRUITFUL’ TRUMP CALL AFTER US PRESIDENT WAS ‘DISAPPOINTED’ BY PUTIN TALK Johnson also responded to criticism from Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., who argued that the megabill makes tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans permanent, while those for the working class “are time sensitive” and “expire in a couple of years.” “Now, I don’t think he read the bill, it’s 940 pages, so I would give some grace on that,” Johnson said in response to Ivey’s claims. Bream noted that Ivey was listening while the bill text was read on the Senate floor last Sunday. “Yeah, you’re right, for 19 hours or whatever it took,” Johnson said. “If you make between $30,000 and $80,000 a year, you can have a 15% less federal tax rate. You’re going to save more money, you’re going to keep more of your hard-earned money, and that’s not going away. So by making all these tax cuts permanent, it’s the largest tax bill, the most important, most consequential tax bill that Congress has ever passed because of what it does for people who go out and work hard every day.” Johnson said the bill pushes “pro-growth policies” and constitutes the “largest savings for the taxpayers in U.S. history.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “In the bill, we’re also going to secure the border permanently. We’re going to return to American energy dominance again, which is going to also be jet fuel to the economy,” Johnson said. “We’re gonna take care of peace through strength because we’re going to give important investments in our military industrial complex, which will help us in our competition with China. There is so much in this bill.”
Race against time: How Congress barely made July 4 deadline on ‘big, beautiful bill’
Football and basketball coaches are experts in clock management. So are lawmakers. Coaches are adept at either burning or saving just enough time on the clock to execute a play – or prevent the other team from doing so. Congressional clock management is very different. TRUMP $3.3T MEGABILL SETS HOUSE RECORD FOR LONGEST VOTE IN HISTORY Whatever lawmakers say they will do – it will always take them a profoundly longer period of time in which to do it. That’s why the temporal politics of passing President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” overwhelmed everyone who works on Capitol Hill over the past few weeks. That ranges from the lawmakers themselves to the aides, journalists, Capitol custodians and U.S. Capitol Police officers. To wit: Congressional Republicans have churned through variations of frameworks and iterations of the big, beautiful bill since February. But things finally got serious when the House adopted its formal version of the package on May 22, beating the Memorial Day goal by four days. There was chatter that the Senate would tackle the House’s package the week of June 9. Then that fell to the week of June 15. The idea was that the Senate would process its version of the bill that week and then allow the House to sync up during the week of June 22. Then those hopes were dashed. That’s to say nothing of the Senate at least voting to proceed to even start debate at the very end of the week of June 15. Here’s what really happened. And it underscores just how protracted the process can be on Capitol Hill, especially with a very complicated and controversial piece of legislation. On Monday, June 23, Republican senators talked about taking a procedural vote to launch debate on the big, beautiful bill as early as Wednesday or Thursday, June 25 or 26. Such a vote would require just 51 yeas. But the bill wasn’t ready. Republicans were still crafting and drafting the bill to comport with Senate budget rules. The GOP also aimed to write the legislation in a fashion to court 51 yeas to crack the procedural hurdle and formally start debate. Midweek came and the Senate never took a procedural vote. Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., opposed starting debate on a bill that was not complete. So midweek morphed into the weekend, and when the Senate convened on Saturday, June 28, Fox News was told the chamber would take a procedural vote to begin debate around 4 p.m. ET. SENATE REPUBLICANS RAM TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ THROUGH KEY TEST VOTE Well, you guessed it. The Senate did not trigger that vote until 7:31 p.m. Saturday. And the 15-minute vote turned into a three-hour and 38-minute affair. The Senate closed the vote at 11:09 p.m. Saturday – with Vice President JD Vance nearby in case his services were necessary to break a tie. They were not. At least not on the dais. But Vance played a pivotal role in negotiating with Johnson, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and others to greenlight the Senate starting on the bill. However, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., then compelled Senate clerks to read the entire 940-page bill out loud from the dais. That enterprise consumed just under 16 hours of floor time. The clerks – their voices cracking and hoarse – concluded a few minutes after 3 p.m. on Sunday. This marked the first time a senator required the clerks to verbally read a bill before the Senate since 2021. So, once the clerks concluded their oratory, it was believed that the Senate might go all night with its marathon voting session – known as a “vote-a-rama” – and try to finish the bill sometime by dawn Monday. But this is Congress time. Senators didn’t even begin the vote-a-rama until 9:40 am Monday. Twelve hours later, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., suggested it was time to “start figuring out” a final group of amendments that were necessary to conclude the bill. Some groaned at that notion. One senator told Fox News that 12 hours later was a little late in the game to “start figuring out” something of that magnitude. The Senate then toiled throughout the night Monday and into Tuesday. Thune and the GOP leadership finally cut a deal with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, on rural hospitals to marshal her vote. The Senate approved the bill late Tuesday morning after an all-night session. Vance was back to break the tie in what is called a “Van Halen” vote. The tally was 50-50 since three GOP senators defected. But Vance’s vote in favor made the roll call “51-50.” For those who are uninitiated in the Van Halen discography, “5150” was Van Halen’s first album with new lead singer Sammy Hagar, supplanting David Lee Roth. It went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts. Then, it was on to the House. HOUSE ADVANCES TRUMP’S MASSIVE AGENDA BILL AFTER FREEDOM CAUCUS CAVES The House Rules Committee serves as a gateway for legislation to head to the floor. It convened a meeting early Tuesday afternoon. The Senate would soon send its revamped version of the big, beautiful bill across the Capitol Dome for the House to align. The Rules Committee then proceeded to meet until around 1 a.m. Wednesday, prepping the bill for the floor. That meant the House could vote by late Wednesday afternoon. But there was a problem. House GOP leaders discovered what they termed a “technical error” in the rule. The entire House must first approve the rule before debating legislation on the floor. So the House needed to vote on the fix first. That vote started early Wednesday afternoon – and continued for another seven hours and 31 minutes. That established a record for the longest roll call vote in House history, topping a vote of seven hours and 21 minutes in 2021. Some Republicans weren’t at the Capitol. But they held the vote open to buy time to work on skeptical GOP members who may be holdouts. And around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson,
Trump spending cuts, his approach to climate change attacked as catalyst of catastrophic Texas flooding
Critics of President Donald Trump wasted no time blaming staffing cuts at the National Weather Service (NWS) for the widespread death and destruction caused by the floods in Texas, a reaction the White House called “shameful and disgusting.” At least 59 people, including 21 children, have been confirmed dead from the flash floods along the Guadalupe River that began Friday. Eleven children and one counselor remain missing from a girls’ summer camp near the river, which flooded due to the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry. That storm made landfall over Mexico, but triggered massive unexpected thunderstorms over parts of Texas. “It only took 9 days for Trump’s cuts to the [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] to kill dozens of children in Texas when Tropical Storm Barry landed this week,” Grant Stern, the executive editor of Occupy Democrats, wrote on X. TEXAS FLOOD SURVIVORS SHARE HARROWING STORIES, SEARCH CONTINUES FOR THOSE STILL MISSING “The people in Texas voted for government services controlled by Donald Trump and Greg Abbott,” added Ron Filipkowski, former federal prosecutor and the editor-in-chief of MediasTouchNews. “That is exactly what they (sic) getting.” “What has happened to the girls at Camp Mystic is EXACTLY what one of the country’s best meteorologists, John Morales, warned would happen,” added Rachel Bitecofer, assistant director at Christopher Newport University’s Wason Center for Public Policy. “Trump’s cuts to the NOAA & NWS have critically impacted storm prediction nationwide.” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem held a press conference Saturday, and acknowledged some of the criticisms regarding the nation’s flood notification systems, which included concerns that weather forecasts underestimated the amount of rain that ultimately fell. Noem noted that the Trump administration is “currently upgrading” the nation’s flood notification technology, which she described as “ancient.” DEADLY TEXAS FLOOD EXPOSES ‘NEGLECTED’ WEATHER ALERT SYSTEM TRUMP AIMS TO MODERNIZE “When the [weather] system came over the area, it stalled,” Noem said during the press conference. “It was much more water, much like [what] we experienced during [Hurricane] Harvey, with the same type of system that was unpredictable in the way that it reacted in the way that it stopped right here and dumped unprecedented amounts of rain that caused a flooding event like this.” Tom Fahy, legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, told NBC News that weather forecasting offices were adequately staffed, and “they issued timely forecasts and warnings leading up to the storm,” but he added that unfilled leadership positions were “clearly a concern.” “All I’ll say is this. The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for Kerr County more than 12 hours ahead of the catastrophic flood. A flash flood warning was issued for Hunt & Ingram 3 HOURS before the Guadalupe started to climb,” said Texas-based meteorologist Avery Tomasco. “They did their job and they did it well.” The same sentiment was echoed by other meteorological experts as well. But, still, news of the advanced warnings has not stopped people from using the catastrophe to criticize the Trump administration. “The reason Trump defunded the National Weather Service leading to the deaths of all those girls in the Texas flood is because PROJECT 2025 THOUGHT WEATHER PREDICTION SCIENCE WAS TIED TO EVIDENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE,” musician Mikel Jollett wrote on X. WHITE HOUSE INSISTS FEMA IS TAKING HURRICANE SEASON ‘SERIOUSLY,’ BLASTS ‘SLOPPY’ REPORTING Isaiah Martin, a Democratic candidate for Texas’s 18th Congressional District, called for an immediate congressional investigation into “the Republican DOGE cuts to NOAA and the National Weather Service.” “We saw the affects (sic) this weekend,” Martin wrote on X. “Trump defunded these agencies and we DEMAND answers. There MUST be *swift* accountability!” “Trump & Musk gutted the National Weather Service. The result was predictable: A bad forecast leading to the death of children in a horrific flood,” added California state Senator Scott Wiener. Meanwhile, Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee did not directly blame Trump’s approach to climate change for the deaths, but he suggested the president’s efforts to peel back green energy funding are a contributing factor to increased catastrophic natural disasters, like this weekend’s flood in Texas. “It is hard to make the Texas flood tragedy worse, except to know that on the same day Trump signed a bill cratering solar and wind energy that is vital in the battle against the climate change making these torrential rains more frequent,” Inslee wrote on X this weekend. During an interview with CNN, Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, added that he didn’t think it was helpful to have open leadership positions that, if filled, could “help prevent these strategies.” “I don’t think it’s helpful to have missing key personnel from the National Weather Service not in place to help prevent these tragedies,” Castro said, adding “we have to figure out in the future how we make sure that it doesn’t happen again.” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson called it “shameful and disgusting” to see that in the wake of this tragedy people are politicizing what took place. ”It’s shameful and disgusting that in the wake of tragedy, the left’s first instinct is to lie and politicize a disaster to target their political opponents. False claims about the NWS have been repeatedly debunked by meteorologists, experts, and other public reporting,” Jackson said. “The NWS did their job, even issuing a flood watch more than 12 hours in advance. The Trump Administration is grateful to the first responders who sprung into action to save hundreds lives during this catastrophe, and will continue to help the great state of Texas in their recovery efforts.”
Elon Musk launches the America Party as feud with Trump escalates
Tesla CEO says he has formed a new political party after falling out with US President Donald Trump over the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’. Billionaire Elon Musk has followed through on his pledge to create a new political party in the United States after President Donald Trump signed his controversial budget legislation, the so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill”, into law. Musk in a post on X on Saturday declared the formation of the “America Party“, to “give back” the people of the US their freedom and challenge what he called the nation’s “one-party system”. He cited a poll, uploaded on Friday – the US’s Independence Day – in which he asked whether respondents “want independence from the two-party (some would say uniparty) system” that has dominated US politics for some two centuries. The yes-or-no survey earned more than 1.2 million responses. “By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!” Musk wrote on Saturday. “When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy. Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom,” he declared. The move comes amid a worsening of the feud between the world’s richest man and Trump over the new budget law, which the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said would bankrupt the US. Musk was Trump’s main campaign financier during the 2024 election, and led the Department of Government Efficiency from the start of the president’s second term, aimed at slashing government spending. The two have since fallen out spectacularly over disagreements about the “Big, Beautiful Bill”. Musk said previously that he would start a new political party and spend money to unseat lawmakers who supported the bill, which experts say will pile an extra $3.4 trillion over a decade onto the US deficit. Advertisement “They will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,” Musk had said. There was no immediate comment from Trump or the White House on Musk’s announcement. Trump earlier this week threatened to cut off the billions of dollars in subsidies that Musk’s companies receive from the federal government, and to deport the South African-born tycoon. “We’ll have to take a look,” the president told reporters when asked if he would consider deporting Musk, who has held US citizenship since 2002. It is not clear how much impact the new party will have on the 2026 mid-term elections, or on the presidential vote two years after that. On Friday, after posting the poll, Musk laid out a possible political battle plan to pick off vulnerable House of Representatives and Senate seats, and for the party to become “the deciding vote” on key legislation. “One way to execute on this would be to laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts,” Musk posted on X. All 435 US House seats are up for grabs every two years, while about one-third of the Senate’s 100 members, who serve six-year terms, are elected every two years. Despite Musk’s deep pockets, breaking the Republican-Democratic duopoly is a tall order, given that it has dominated US political life for more than 160 years, while Trump’s approval ratings in polls in his second term have generally held firm above 40 percent, despite the president’s often divisive policies. Adblock test (Why?)
Scepticism and hope for end to Gaza war before Trump-Netanyahu meeting
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting the United States on Monday, a visit analysts expect will focus on celebrating Israel and the US’s self-anointed victory against Iran and discussing a proposal for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This is the third time this year Netanyahu will be meeting US President Donald Trump, who claims the US and Israel “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear programme during a 12-day war and that he would resume bombing Iran if it restarts nuclear activities. Last week, Trump said Israel had agreed to conditions for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, which would allow all parties to work towards an end to Israel’s 21-month-long war on the besieged enclave. On July 4, Hamas gave a “positive” response to Qatari and Egyptian mediators about the latest ceasefire proposal. Is a ceasefire realistic? On Friday, after Hamas’s response to the proposal, Trump said there could be a “deal next week” and promised to be “very firm” with Netanyahu to ensure a ceasefire. Israel has since said that Hamas has requested changes to the proposal that it found “unacceptable”, but that Israeli negotiators would be going to Qatar on Sunday to discuss the proposal. According to a leaked copy of the deal obtained by Al Jazeera, the ceasefire entails a 60-day pause in hostilities and a phased release of some of the 58 Israeli captives held in Gaza since a Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 57,000 people, mostly women and children, in what United Nations experts, legal scholars and human rights groups describe as a genocide against Palestinians. Advertisement Many experts told Al Jazeera that they are not optimistic a temporary ceasefire will lead to a permanent end to the war. “The way [the ceasefire talks] are being framed leaves me sceptical,” said Omar Rahman, an expert on Israel-Palestine with the Middle East Council for Global Affairs. Rahman added that he believes Trump was focused on getting the Israeli captives released, but not on ending the war and the suffering of the people of Gaza. Trump previously promised an end to the war after pushing for a ceasefire just days before he became president in January. However, two months later, Trump did nothing when Israel unilaterally resumed its attacks on Gaza, killing thousands more people. Mairav Zonszein, an expert on Israel-Palestine for the International Crisis Group, said that could happen again. Relatives of Palestinians killed in the Israeli attack on Khan Younis receive the bodies from Nasser Hospital for funerals, in Gaza City, July 4, 2025 [Abdallah F.s. Alattar/Anadolu Agency] “It all rests on Trump and the US to sustain real pressure [on Netanyahu], but that is highly doubtful,” she told Al Jazeera. “I’m optimistic there could be some kind of ceasefire, but longevity and the terms are highly questionable,” Zonszein said. “It’s also possible we could see a ceasefire that does not last because … Israel still every so often just bombs something without repercussions [in Gaza],” she added. Yaser al-Banna, a Palestinian journalist in Gaza, said many in the Strip are divided over whether a ceasefire will end the war. While everyone prays it will, some people cannot imagine Netanyahu sticking to a deal. Netanyahu insists that the war will not end without a “total victory” over Hamas, a concept he has not defined. “About half the people in Gaza are very pessimistic… The other half believes this time could be different due to shared interests among Israel, the Palestinians, Arab states and the US to end this war,” he said. Glory and pragmatism Many analysts believe that Trump is driven by his desire to strike grandiose deals in order to boast about his achievements in global affairs. On Monday, he is likely to take credit for ostensibly dismantling Iran’s nuclear programme – even though that may not be true – and express his desire to retrieve the rest of the Israeli captives in Gaza. He also wants to get the “Gaza issue” out of the way to pursue more normalisation deals between Israel and neighbouring Arab states, said Khaled Elgindy, an expert on Israel-Palestine and a professor of Arab Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Advertisement “Trump wants to be able to say that he got back the Israeli hostages… and got a Palestinian state… Then he can call himself master of the universe, but getting those things is much harder than he thinks,” Elgindy told Al Jazeera. It’s unclear whether Netanyahu’s political calculations align with Trump’s ambitions. Israel’s next parliamentary elections have to take place before October 2026, and Netanyahu could go to the polls sooner, riding on a likely wave of popularity if he succeeds in returning the remaining captives. Like Trump, he would also tout what he terms a stunning victory against Iran to the Israeli public. Those considerations are important because it is likely that Netanyahu’s frail far-right coalition, held together by pressure to prolong the war on Gaza, would collapse if a permanent ceasefire is reached, said Hugh Lovatt, an expert on Israel-Palestine with the European Council on Foreign Relations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends his trial on corruption charges at the district court in Tel Aviv, Israel, March 12, 2025 [ Yair Sagi/ Reuters] “At the end of [the possible] 60-day ceasefire, [Netanyahu] could go to elections by committing to a full end to the war and collapse his coalition; or he could go back to war to keep his [far-right] coalition together should he judge the time not right for elections,” he told Al Jazeera. A possible, nearly unfathomable, outcome Staying in office is particularly important for Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, who faces several domestic legal charges of fraud and bribery. During his much-anticipated meeting with Trump, experts expect them to discuss Netanyahu’s trial, which many believe plays a large role in dictating his political calculations. Netanyahu’s position as prime minister has enabled him to undermine the Israeli judicial system by appointing loyalists to
Emergency workers battle wildfires in Syria
NewsFeed Syria’s Civil Defence teams are battling wildfires sweeping through northeastern Syria, with the coastal region of Latakia among the worst hit. Emergency workers expressed concerns that unexploded ordnance from the war might be contributing to the rapid spread of the flames. Published On 6 Jul 20256 Jul 2025 Adblock test (Why?)
Ghaziabad-Kanpur Expressway: Travel time to cut by 3 hours, will link THESE 9 UP districts, set to open in…
Ghaziabad-Kanpur Expressway will cut travel time between Ghaziabad and Kanpur from eight hours to just 5 hours.
From eating to floating in space: Shubhanshu Shukla answers 5 questions by students about life on ISS
He reflected on the intricate network of global space agencies and their partnerships, noting that these collaborations had enabled such space ventures.
Dalai Lama’s 90th Birthday: Tibetan monks in exile offers special prayers in Shimla, PM Modi extends wishes to spiritual leader
On the occassion of 90th birthday of 14th Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhist monks living in exile offered special prayers at the Dorjidak Monastery near Shimla at Panthaghati. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also extended birthday greetings.
Himachal Pradesh Weather update: Heavy rains disrupt traffic, power, water supply; 269 roads blocked, 285 transformers affected
Kullu district was the second most impacted in terms of road access, with 39 roads blocked in sub-divisions like Banjar and Nirmand due to rainfall-triggered obstructions.