Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) is calling on his Senate GOP colleagues to start holding votes and working to pass more of President Trump's MAGA affordability agenda.
Kennedy joined the Will Cain show earlier this week to discuss using reconciliation to push through more legislation, noting that the precedent already exists: it's how the Senate passed the One Big Beautiful Bill earlier this year.
🚨 BREAKING: Sen. John Kennedy is demanding the Senate GOP start holding votes IMMEDIATELY on passing more MAGA affordability policies, only requiring 51 votes
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 22, 2025
GET IT DONE!
"The president can't do everything, OK? Congress needs to do its part. Without depending on a single… pic.twitter.com/JnQsrDSvGq
"Let's start with the idea of a new reconciliation bill," Cain said. "Let's talk about affordability politics. Let's talk about the economy. You gave an interesting speech recently when you distinguished between what's going on now, which is, as you described it, disinflation — that's the slowing down of Biden-era inflation from nine percent to the current two to three percent — but distinguishing that from deflation. Very different and, in your description, very dangerous."
"Let me say first," Kennedy began, "I'm gonna give credit to the President, to the Republicans in Congress, and to the Federal Reserve for getting inflation down. It wasn't that many years ago that we had nine percent inflation."
"And that inflation didn't originate in a bat," Kennedy said. "That inflation was man-made, and that man's name is President Joe Biden. So we started at nine percent, and we got it down to three percent. That's the good news. The bad news is that three percent inflation still means prices are going up."
"Now, what do we do about it?" Kennedy continued. "First, we acknowledge the problem, and it is a fact that when many moms and dads lie down and sleep at night and can't, one of the things they're worried about is the cost of living. And you can say, well, you shouldn't be worried about it because things are better. Well, they're still worried about it, and my job is to address what people are worried about."
"What should we do about it? The President can't do everything," Kennedy said. "Congress needs to do its part. Without depending on a single Democratic vote, we can start passing bills tomorrow to reduce the cost of housing and to lessen the cost of healthcare. The legislation is ready. We have over 200 tax changes that, if we made, they would stimulate the economy and increase wages. We do it through what's called reconciliation. That's how we pass the One Big, Beautiful Bill. And the One Big, Beautiful Bill, by the way, is going to help once it kicks in this year. But since we passed it back in July, we hadn't done anything!"
Kennedy's message resonated. Many say 2026 will be a midterm election focused on the economy and affordability.
"Sen. Kennedy is on point. Start the votes immediately. Use reconciliation to the max," said Daugherty.
"Good. Stop hiding behind procedure and start putting senators on record. Cut spending, secure the border, end the handouts, and make energy cheap again. If they will not vote on it, they do not support it," wrote one social media user.
"Congress should send another reconciliation bill to President Trump's desk. Enormous missed opportunity if Congress does not," said another.
It would be a nice Christmas gift to have Congress return and start passing legislation. We'll see what happens after the New Year.