Republicans head to the White House as Trump’s tax-cut bill hits trouble
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- A fresh analysis from the Congressional Budget Office said the tax provisions would increase the federal deficit by $3.8 trillion over the decade.
- To cut spending, the package would impose new work requirements for many people who receive healthcare through Medicaid.
WASHINGTON — With President Trump’s multitrillion-dollar tax breaks package at risk of stalling, House Speaker Mike Johnson and conservative Republican holdouts are heading Wednesday to the White House for the last-ditch talks to salvage the “big, beautiful bill.”
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, had hoped to vote as soon as Wednesday on the 1,000-page plus bill after grinding through an all-night committee hearing, a final step in the process. But debate dragged into midday. Democrats, without the votes to stop Trump’s package, are using all available tools to press their opposition and capitalize on the GOP disarray.
“We believe it’s one big, ugly bill that’s going to hurt the American people,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York as he and his team testified before the committee.
“Hurt children, hurt families, hurt veterans, hurt seniors, cut healthcare, cut nutritional assistance, explode the debt,” he said.
Trump had instructed the Republican majority to quit arguing and get it done, putting his own political influence on the line. But the Republican president failed to move many skeptics during his Capitol Hill visit this week and GOP leaders struggled through the night on crafting last-minute deals.
But for every faction of the slim House majority that Johnson appeases, he is losing others. A tentative deal with GOP lawmakers from New York and other high-tax states to boost deductions for local taxes to $40,000 alarmed the most conservative Republicans, worried it will add to the nation’s $36-trillion debt.
Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), the chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, said he did not believe the package could pass in a House vote, but “there is a pathway forward that we can see.”
“We want to deliver the president’s agenda,” he said.
It’s a make-or-break moment for the president and his party in Congress, who have invested much of their political capital during the crucial first few months of Trump’s return to the White House on this package. If the House Republicans fall in line with the president, overcoming unified Democratic objections, the package would next go to the Senate.
A Vietnamese and a Burmese man, and up to nine others, appear to have been abruptly removed from immigration detention in Texas to South Sudan, in defiance of a federal court order, attorneys said.
“We’re doing very well. It’s very close,” Trump said at the White House.
A fresh analysis from the Congressional Budget Office said the tax provisions would increase federal deficits by $3.8 trillion over the decade, while the changes to Medicaid, food stamps and other services would tally $1 trillion in reduced spending. The lowest-income households in the U.S. would see their resources drop, while the highest ones would see a boost, the CBO said.
Republicans convened the House Rules Committee hearing shortly after midnight, but Johnson’s Memorial Day deadline for House passage was slipping as lawmakers prepared to depart for the holiday.
At its core, the package is centered on extending the tax breaks approved during Trump’s first term in 2017, while adding new ones he campaigned on during his 2024 campaign.
To make up for some of the lost revenue, the Republicans are focused on spending cuts to federal safety net programs and a massive rollback of green energy tax breaks from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act.
Additionally, the package tacks on $350 billion in new spending, with about $150 billion going to the Pentagon, including for the president’s new “Golden Dome” defense shield, and the rest for Trump’s mass deportation and border security agenda.
The package title carries Trump’s own words, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
As Trump promised voters on the tax front, the package proposes there would be no taxes on tips for certain workers, including those in some service industries; automobile loan interest; or some overtime pay.
There would also be an increase to the standard income tax deduction, to $32,000 for joint filers, and a boost to the child tax credit to $2,500. There would be an enhanced deduction, of $4,000, for seniors of certain income levels, to help defray taxes on Social Security income.
To cut spending, the package would impose new work requirements for many people who receive healthcare through Medicaid, with able-bodied adults without dependents needing to fulfill 80 hours a month on a job or in other community activities.
Similarly, those who receive food stamps through the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, known as SNAP, would also face new work requirements.
From Grover Cleveland to John F. Kennedy and Donald Trump, examples abound of presidential maladies being minimized or kept secret.
Older Americans up to age 64, rather than 54, who are able-bodied and without dependents would need to work or engage in the community programs for 80 hours a month. Additionally, some parents of children older than 7 years old would need to fulfill the work requirements; under current law, the requirement comes after children are 18.
Republicans said they want to root out waste, fraud and abuse in the federal programs.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated 8.6 million fewer people would have health insurance with the various changes to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. It also said 3 million fewer people each month would have SNAP benefits.
Conservatives are insisting on quicker, steeper cuts to federal programs to offset the costs of the trillions of dollars in lost tax revenue. GOP leaders have sped up the start date of the Medicaid work requirements from 2029 to 2027.
At the same time, more moderate and centrist lawmakers are wary of the changes to Medicaid that could result in lost healthcare for their constituents. Others are worried the phaseout of the renewable energy tax breaks will impede businesses using them to invest in green energy projects in many states.
Plus, those lawmakers from New York, California and other high-tax states want a bigger state and local tax deduction, called SALT, for their voters back home.
As it stands, the bill would triple what’s currently a $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction, increasing it to $30,000 for joint filers with incomes up to $400,000 a year. They have proposed a deduction of $62,000 for single filers and $124,000 for joint filers.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog group, estimates that the House bill is shaping up to add roughly $3.3 trillion to the debt over the next decade.
Mascaro, Freking, Askarinam and Cappelletti write for the Associated Press. AP writer Chris Megerian contributed to this report.
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