‘Tis the season for reconciliation.

You wouldn’t know it watching House GOP members thrash under the weight of Trump’s “big beautiful” budget reconciliation bill. They got it through the House Budget Committee late last night, but only by getting four hard-right holdouts to vote “present” instead of “no.” And with very little visibly reconciled.

The central problem is that the GOP wants to extend all of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, toss in some additional tax breaks, like no taxes on tips, and increase spending on the border and defense. But they haven’t figured out how to pay for it all. The Committee for a Responsible National Budget estimates that the current bill would “massively increase near-term deficits,” and add $3.3 trillion in debt over the next 10 years.

Enter our man Mike Lawler, who is having a hard time reconciling his own positions with himself, let alone the broader GOP. Lawler portrays himself as a deficit hawk, constantly referencing the unsustainable $36 trillion national debt. Yet his flagship demand in the budget discussions is to raise the cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions from $10,000 to $100,000 for individuals, which would increase the federal deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars. (See “Peppering Us With SALT“).

Lawler has been saying it for months: “I will not support any bill that does not adequately lift the cap on SALT.” House leadership has already offered to triple the cap to $30,000, but Lawler says that isn’t good enough, and is standing firm. He posted this on Friday:

The problem with this statement is that the middle class is well covered by the $30,000 cap already on the table. At this point, Lawler is gaslighting the middle class with his rationale of fairness, and fighting only for his rich donors. The Wall Street Journal editorial board called out Lawler last week, saying he can’t even take yes for an answer: “You gotta love that the first big tax bill from the new ‘working class’ GOP includes a big subsidy for well-to-do taxpayers . . . .” They go on to suggest that if tripling the cap isn’t good enough for Lawler and his SALT caucus, “Speaker Johnson should consider the Michael Corleone option: nothing.”

Lawler’s SALT stand also sparked criticism from Marjorie Taylor Greene. The two of them went at each other like middle schoolers on social media last week. She warned others not to follow his lead, saying “Mike Lawler usually isn’t the guy in the conference with the best ideas.” Can’t disagree there. He responded by calling her the “Jewish Space Laser lady,” and after some more back and forth posted this:

That’s our Representative, standing tall with the Joey GIF.

Trump campaigned last fall that he would lift the SALT cap, and Lawler bent the knee at Mar-a-Lago in January to confirm Trump’s support on the issue. With Trump’s statement a couple weeks back that “Mike has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election,” Mike feels emboldened. Enough to declare on Friday:

“The Corleone treatment won’t work on me: I won’t be ignored and will keep President Trump’s promise to restore SALT deductions.”

Trump has been a bit distracted of late, hanging out in his happy place with strong men in the Middle East, where the women are hidden, the sword dances and purple carpets are not, and all is gilded without guilt. But now that he’s back, you can bet that Trump won’t let his own big beautiful bill be held up over SALT discussions for very long. And that Lawler won’t stand up to the real Don in the end. Hate them horse heads.