Mike Johnson touts new GOP agenda under Trump: Were going to be dismantling the deep state

Fresh off his reelection as speaker, Mike Johnson hyped up Republicans’ ambitious agenda for the new year and pledged to take aim at the “deep state” through their legislative endeavors.Johnson (R-La.), 52, previewed plans to bundle a sprawling slate of reforms on taxes, energy, the border and more into a mammoth package and take it up for a vote in April.

“It’ll have a lot of pieces.We have made a lot of campaign promises,” Johnson teased on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “And we’re going to be dismantling the deep state all along the way.”Johnson huddled with his House Republican colleagues in Fort McNair, Maryland for almost nine hours Saturday to map out their strategy to pass President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda in the new Congress.

The rough plan is to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, key provisions of which are set to expire later this year, and make good on campaign promises such as eliminating taxes on tips and Social Security while raising the cap on the state and local tax deduction.The package will also feature legislation inspired by what Republicans previously drafted to bolster border security and ramp up energy production.

The GOP will seek to wrangle it through the Senate via a process known as budget reconciliation to bypass the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster.Republicans also intend to separately pass smaller bills aimed at addressing the border, which Johnson described as “low-hanging fruit” before taking up the mammoth bill.

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SC) had pushed for Republicans to split the package into two bills: one to deal with energy and the border, and another to tackle taxes.But Trump has since favored the single-bill approach...