President Donald Trump has urged House Speaker Mike Johnson and the House of Representatives to send him one big spending bill — often adding pulchritude to the elusive document, he calls it “one big beautiful bill” — so that he can sign it and get his agenda moving through legislation.
[Trump has so far primarily governed by decree through numerous executive orders since returning to the White House, but long-term tax policy, immigration reform, budgetary changes and myriad appropriations remain chiefly the bailiwick of Congress — with a government shutdown date looming on March 14.]
The “one big bill” has a nice ring to it for some, but others wary of big government fear that “one big bill” sounds too much like “all you can eat” — and that this approach only promotes the unwieldy inclusion of pork and expanded budgetary waistlines, anathema to small government conservatives.
Even the conservative Wall Street Journal chimed in saying in January that “research shows that bundling unrelated policy proposals into a single law makes it easy to thwart what most voters—and lawmakers—actually want.”
In an unlikely pairing, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), is aligned in this case with the Wall Street Journal and with Freedom Caucus fiscal hawks like Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) when it comes to the dangers of the one big bill.
Here’s Roy:
Moskowitz, as a member of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Caucus in the House, is using Elon Musk‘s DOGE activity as evidence that the legislative process is in peril unless it returns to writing separate bills.
[NOTE: Moskowitz refers to the 12 individual spending bills written by 12 Appropriations Subcommittees and delineated here by Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID).]
Moskowitz: If Elon Musk and DOGE has found all this fraud, waste, and abuse, well, then, we can’t fund the government by CR because the CR would refund all of that waste, fraud, and abuse. Which means the only way to fund the government is to fund it by individual spending… pic.twitter.com/5yly2u3p9v
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 11, 2025
Moskowitz leaned heavily on Musk’s alleged findings of waste as proof that the big bill strategy was untenable, suggesting — and citing DOGE’s work as evidence — that big comprehensive legislation is far too vulnerable to corrupting influences.
“If that’s true, Mr. Speaker,” Moskowitz says, “If Elon Musk and DOGE have found all this fraud and waste and abuse — hundreds of billions of dollars, as they claim — well then Mr. Speaker we can’t fund the government by CR anymore because the CR would refund all of that waste, fraud, and abuse that DOGE has found. Which means the only way to fund the government is to fund it by individual spending bills.”