Washington – The landmark legislation that would rewrite the Tax Act and impose a plan to significantly cut plans to provide health care and food stamps to the poor was passed by the House earlier Thursday.
The measure titled “A Large Bill Act” will increase the Department of Border Security and Defense funding, thus eliminating the taxes for prompts and overtime, and providing new tax breaks for seniors and renewing the 2017 tax cuts during the first Trump administration. To pay for these new financing commitments, the bill proposes to remove green energy tax benefits adopted by President Biden and cuts to an estimated $1 trillion in Medicaid and supplementary nutrition assistance programs.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the bill will still add so much money to the debt that Congress may be forced to implement cuts across the board, including hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicare, a process known as a seal.
The House vote fell along the party's boundaries. The Trump administration has passed opposition to the bill, saying Democrats have supported the biggest tax increase for middle-class Americans in decades, about the expiration of the upcoming Trump tax relief in 2017 at the end of the year.
Democrats, on the other hand, accused Republicans of voting for the deepest cuts in modern healthcare. By introducing work hour requirements and raising premiums under the Affordable Care Act, CBOs and other nonpartisan organizations estimate that up to 14 million Americans may lose their coverage.
These drastic changes in the health care landscape have brought several Republican senators to a halt.
Maine Senator Susan Collins said she was “very wary of cutting Medicaid.” Missouri Senator Josh Hawley said he “does not support” the drastic cuts in Medicaid benefits. After the vote Thursday, Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas said the House bill should undergo significant changes.
“We need to go back to the bill with a fine-tooth comb and make it better,” Marshall said in an interview with Newsmax. “I think Medicaid has a chance to make the bill better to make sure we strengthen the bill so that it can be retained for those who need it most.”
Any rollback of the Senate’s cuts to Medicaid could face resistance from the House Liberty Caucus during the settlement. Members of the group announced their commitment to fiscal conservatism, demanding deeper cuts to Medicaid.
Rep. Andy Harris, Maryland, voted “present” early Thursday morning, retaining negotiation leverage as the bill evolved on Capitol Hill.
“I voted to introduce the bill in the process of the president,” Harris wrote on social media. “There is still much work to be done in reducing the deficit and ending waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid.”
The vote comes after Trump encountered a Republican reservation for hours at the White House. Until Wednesday afternoon, before meeting with the president, several of the lawmakers raised doubts about the prospect of the bill passing this week, ahead of the Memorial Day deadline set by House Speaker Mike Johnson (Louisiana Republic).
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was dismissed by the Liberty Caucus on Thursday, told CNN that the cuts they pushed hardly would create national debt.
“You have a chance,” Graham told the caucus. “Some of these cuts aren't real. We're talking over a decade – if you do $1.5 trillion, that's like one percent, half. So let's not get the horses up here, we've somehow made some big progress in reducing spending because we don't.”
North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer also mocked the caucus, calling it “rich,” and its members taught fiscal conservatism to Senate Republicans, “there is no such conservative in the end.” The CBO estimates that House legislation would increase the deficit by $3.8 billion.
If passed, new job requirements for Medicaid will begin by the end of 2026 after the midterm elections. The green energy tax credit will be phased out, and any projects that have not been built 60 days after the law comes into effect.
The cap on state and local tax relief (called salt) will increase from $10,000 to $40,000 for individuals and families who earn more than $500,000. The presidential campaign promised to remove taxes on social security, but a parliamentary rule prevented Republicans from cutting them across the board. Instead, the bill recommends enhanced tax breaks for seniors up to $4,000.
On the president’s social media platform, Trump wrote that the bill “is arguably the most important legislation signed in my country’s history!”
“There is no time to waste,” he added. Speaker Johnson sets the goal of sending bills to the president’s desk before Independence Day.
Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president's team is “fitting” to negotiate with the Senate because the bill has passed the House. “We’re going to see it grow,” she said.
“For some reason, 'a big beautiful bill' is named 'a big bill' because it's a big beautiful bill that covers everything the president might want for the American public. It offers many of his core campaign commitments. “He hopes they are busy with this bill and send it to his desk as soon as possible. ”
Levitt added that the two House Republicans who voted against the bill, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio, should face the primary challenge because they violated the president's instructions.
“What choices are there, I'll ask members of Congress. Do they want to see tax hikes? Do they want to see our country go bankrupt? This is the option they are trying to vote no,” she said. “The president believes that the Republican Party needs unity.”
