Politics
Trump’s Capitol Hill warning: The former President encourages the GOP to support his bill.
Trump’s Capitol Hill warning
The pressure on the party to bridge differences that could undermine the package increased when President Trump met with House Republicans on Capitol Hill on Tuesday and urged them to unite behind a comprehensive bill to carry out his domestic agenda.
When Mr. Trump joined Republicans for their weekly meeting behind closed doors, he lauded Speaker Mike Johnson, who has been working hard to obtain the votes needed to pass what the party has called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. They intend to vote on it by the end of this week.
Before the meeting, Mr. Trump declared, “I love this guy—I’m his biggest fan.” If, as anticipated, every legislator is present and voting, and all Democrats are against the bill, the speaker can afford to lose no more than three votes.
By claiming to have been a “cheerleader” for the party and warning that any dissenters “wouldn’t be a Republican much longer,” the president made it apparent that he considered the measure’s success as a test of allegiance to him.
However, by claiming that there were “one or two grandstanders” preventing the legislation from passing, he downplayed the very real divisions within his party that could cause it to fail.
That isn’t true. The comprehensive bill, which would increase spending on the military and immigration enforcement, eliminate taxes on tips and overtime pay, and partially fund it by cutting Medicaid, food stamps, education, and clean energy subsidies, has drawn criticism from a number of Republican factions.
“We are not doing any cutting of anything meaningful,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Capitol Hill, insisting that the package would not reduce any benefits. We are only reducing fraud, misuse, and waste. Waste, fraud, and abuse with Medicaid. The fiscal conservatives who are refusing to support the plan, who contend that it does not significantly alter Medicaid to significantly reduce costs and control deficits, were not likely to be pleased with that statement.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the proposal as it stands now will leave at least 8.6 million Americans without health insurance. However, in deference to Mr. Trump’s expressed opposition and many moderate Republicans, primarily from politically competitive districts, who declared they could not accept such cutbacks, Republican leaders left out two of the most draconian Medicaid-cutting ideas they had thought of.
The president also seems to have changed his mind about SALT deductions, which have become a major point of contention. SALT deductions are the amount of state and local taxes that can be written off on federal tax returns. Regarding Republican skeptics who favor a significant increase in the cap on those deductions, Trump stated that doing so would primarily help Democratic governors in areas with high tax rates, such as California and Illinois.
On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump stated that he would be in favor of removing or increasing the $10,000 cap, which he signed into law in 2017. A number of Republicans from states with high taxes have threatened to oppose the package unless the threshold is increased further, even though it would triple to $30,000.
According to White House officials, the domestic policy legislation’s approval is essential to fulfilling Mr. Trump’s campaign pledges and goals, which include tougher border controls and tax cuts. They see those measures as essential to both Republican control of Congress and the president’s resounding electoral victory.