(AFP) – Republican leaders raced Wednesday to pass a budget that will tee up Donald Trump’s sweeping proposed tax cuts, as a rank-and-file rebellion over spending threatened one of the US president’s signature policies. Both chambers of Congress are Republican-led, but right-wing fiscal hawks in the House of Representatives are angry over what they see as insufficient cuts in the blueprint passed Saturday by the Senate. The two sides need to adopt identical versions of the budget before they can move on Trump’s domestic agenda, led by an extension of his expiring 2017 tax cuts.
“Republicans, it is more important now, than ever, that we pass THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL,” Trump posted on social media, with House leadership eyeing an evening vote on the resolution’s final passage. “The USA will Soar like never before!!!” House Speaker Mike Johnson has pledged to get the budget framework to Trump’s desk before Congress breaks for two weeks on Thursday, putting Republicans on the clock. But several of his members have said they will reject the resolution, with many more undecided— a headache for Johnson as he bids to muscle it through his fractious, thin 220-213 majority.
“Republicans have a historic, once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver relief to hard-working families and set our country back on the path of prosperity,” he told reporters in an appeal for party unity. “The American people desperately need us to take this action, and we will.”
– ‘Unserious and disappointing’ –
The House produced its own budget plan in February, featuring $1.5 trillion in cuts and raising the national borrowing limit by $4 trillion to cover the cost of renewing Trump’s tax cuts through 2034. Senators made changes when they passed their version, requiring their committees to find as little as $4 billion in reductions and envisioning a $5 trillion hike in the debt ceiling. House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington—one of a number of senior Republicans who have raised eyebrows by breaking with the leadership—called the Senate resolution “unserious and disappointing.”
Trump intervened personally on Tuesday, summoning around two dozen holdouts to the White House to bring them into line. US media, citing sources in the room, reported that the president committed to spending cuts that would go far beyond the Senate plans—whatever ends up on the statute books. Johnson said the talks were making “great progress” and added that a lot of skeptical lawmakers had seen their concerns answered.
To tee up chamber-wide votes on legislation, lawmakers must first pass what is known as “a rule”—a text governing how the action will play out on the House floor. Johnson scored a qualified victory when the budget passed this key test in the afternoon, although it crossed the line by the narrowest of margins—216 votes to 215—with three Republicans voting no. Support for the “rule” does not always translate into votes for final passage, and at least two other Republicans have indicated they would toe the line on the preliminary vote but vote no when it counts.
– Frankie TAGGART
© 2024 AFP
