Politics
House Passes Trump Tax-Cut Bill, Sends It to Senate for Approval
The measure might increase US debt by $3.8 trillion and restrict the poor’s access to food and health programs.
Trump tax-cut bill
A significant package that would implement Donald Trump’s tax and spending policies, add trillions of dollars to the US debt, and perhaps deny millions of Americans access to federal safety net programs was passed by Republicans in the House of Representatives on Thursday.
With 215 votes in favor and 214 against, the narrow Republican majority passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act early in the morning along party lines. Weeks of discussions that raised doubts about the GOP’s capacity to reach a consensus on Trump’s main legislative priority in a chamber they control by just three seats came to an end with its passing.
“I praise the Almighty. To put it bluntly, a lot of prayer went into bringing this all together. Following the bill’s passing, House Speaker Mike Johnson stated, “There were a few moments over the last week when it looked like the thing might fall apart.”
Trump applauded the decision and urged the Senate to swiftly approve the legislation. He posted on Truth Social, saying, “This is possibly the most important piece of legislation that will ever be signed in our nation’s history.” “It’s time for our friends in the US Senate to start working and bring this bill to me as soon as possible! Time cannot be wasted.
The plan will fulfill a number of Trump campaign pledges, such as extending corporate and individual tax breaks and repealing Joe Biden’s renewable energy incentives. Additionally, it pays parents $1,000 if they open “Trump accounts” for their children, lowers taxes on gratuities, overtime, and auto loan interest, and increases the deduction for older taxpayers—but only while Trump is in office.
Along with funding new personnel and facilities for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, the law also funds the construction of a wall along the Mexican border.
The Republican Party has authorized new job restrictions and funding cuts for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) and Medicaid, which offer healthcare to Americans with disabilities and the poor, to help balance its expenses. Millions will not be able to benefit from these improvements, according to analysts.
The Congressional Budget Office, which is impartial, estimates that the bill will cost $3.8 trillion over the next ten years, even with the savings. The House passed it less than a week after Moody’s, a credit rating organization, warned of the US’s high national debt and federal budget deficit and revoked the country’s prestigious triple-A rating.
The package is “deeply unpopular, which is why Republicans made every effort to advance it during the dead of night,” according to House Democratic leaders, who have denounced it as a “tax scam.”
The minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, the whip, Katherine Clark, and the caucus chair, Pete Aguilar, declared, “This battle is just getting started, and House Democrats will keep using every weapon at our disposal to make sure that the GOP Tax Scam is buried deep in the ground, never to rise again.”
Barack Obama also issued a rare critique of the bill. Republicans in Congress are currently working to pass a measure that would jeopardize the health coverage of millions of Americans. The former president stated, “They want to increase costs for working-class families, reduce federal funding for Medicaid, and eliminate tax credits that help more people afford coverage.” To reject the bill, he urged citizens to get in touch with their senators.
There are few options for Democratic lawmakers. Republicans are using the budget reconciliation process to keep the party from facing a filibuster in the Senate because it is in the minority in both chambers.
Disagreements among Republicans themselves are the bill’s largest barrier. Johnson had to make concessions to lawmakers from Democratic-led states who wanted a larger deduction for state and local taxes in the days before the vote (Salt). He also had to appease right-wing members who wanted more cost reductions and moderates who were cautious about making drastic cuts to safety net programs.
With the help of Trump’s Tuesday visit to the Capitol, the speaker seems to have healed those divisions. After some cuts were scrapped, moderates gave up, but MPs who resisted Salt received a larger tax break. Johnson also succeeded in swaying the majority of fiscal conservatives, as seen by the only two senators who opposed the bill—Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio—who both pointed to its effect on the deficit.
During the bill’s debate, Massie declared, “This bill is a debt bomb ticking.” “On the Titanic, we won’t be moving deck seats tonight. We’re aiming toward the iceberg and loading coal into the boiler.
Now that the bill is in the Senate, Republicans say they want it on Trump’s desk before the Independence Day holiday on July 4.