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Mike Johnson, Donald Trump get big, 'beautiful win as budget passes House
President Donald Trump's "one big, beautiful bill" passed the House of Representatives early on Thursday morning with few Republican defections.It is a significant victory for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who navigated deep inter-party friction within the House GOP Conference to deliver a product that few Republican lawmakers ultimately defected from.The bill passed 215 to 214 with just two Republicans, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, voting against it. All Democrats voted against the bill as well, and House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris, R-Md., voted "present."The bill is a sweeping multi-trillion-dollar piece of legislation that advances Trump's agenda on taxes, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt.TRUMP'S 'BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL' PASSES KEY HOUSE HURDLE AFTER GOP REBEL MUTINYRepublicans spent more than 48 hours continuously working on the bill from the time it came before the House Rules Committee the final gatekeeper before a House-wide vote at 1 a.m. on Wednesday to when it passed the chamber just after 7 a.m. on Thursday."It quite literally is morning again in America," Johnson said. "What we're achieving today is nothing short of historic."All the while, Democratic lawmakers attempted a variety of delay tactics, from introducing amendments targeting key Trump policies to forcing several procedural votes on the House floor ahead of debate on the legislation.House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., notably spoke on the House floor for over 30 minutes just before the vote in a last-ditch effort to stretch out the seemingly endless day of debate and votes."This bill represents a failed promise. Last year, Donald Trump and House Republicans spent all of their time to lower the high cost of living in the United States of America," Jeffries said on the House floor. "We're now more than 120 days past the inauguration. Costs aren't going down, they're going up."Tensions flared at multiple points as visibly weary lawmakers continued to fight their ideological battle into the early morning.HOUSE GOP TARGETS ANOTHER DEM OFFICIAL ACCUSED OF BLOCKING ICE AMID DELANEY HALL FALLOUTRep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., who was presiding over the House at the time, warned Jeffries multiple times to address the chair in his remarks rather than directly attacking Republicans sitting across the chamber."Every time I'm interrupted, that's going to add another 15 minutes to my remarks," Jeffries said as Democrats sitting around him sounded off in support.The bill seeks to permanently extend Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) while also implementing newer Trump campaign promises like eliminating taxes on tips and overtime pay, and giving senior citizens a higher tax deduction for a period of four years.The legislation also included new funding for the border and defense, including more money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations and $25 billion to kick-start construction of a "Golden Dome" defense system over the U.S.At the same time, the legislation seeks to make a dent in the federal government's spending trajectory by cutting roughly $1.5 trillion in government spending elsewhere. The U.S. government is more than $36 trillion in debt.Cuts include new work requirements for able-bodied Medicaid recipients, as well as putting more of the cost-sharing burden on states that took advantage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)'s expanded Medicaid enrollment by giving illegal immigrants access to the healthcare program.The legislation would also roll back a host of green energy tax credits awarded in former President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) which Trump vowed to repeal in its entirety on the campaign trail.It also would cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by roughly 20% by introducing some cost-sharing burdens on the states and increasing the amount of able-bodied Americans facing work requirements to be eligible for food stamps.All House Democrats rejected the bill, accusing Republicans of disproportionately favoring the wealthy at the expense of critical programs for working Americans. Republicans, on the other hand, have contended that they are preserving tax cuts that prevent a 22% tax increase on Americans next year if TCJA was allowed to expire, as well as streamlining programs like Medicaid and SNAP for vulnerable Americans who need it most.Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, chair of the House's 189 member-strong Republican Study Committee, told Fox News Digital, "This transformational legislation permanently extends President Trump's historic tax cuts, provides unprecedented funding for border security, and obliterates the last four years of catastrophic Democratic policies."And while most GOP lawmakers united on the final bill, divisions appeared to persist until the final moments. Conservatives had pushed for more aggressive targeting of Medicaid waste and Biden green energy subsidies, while blue state Republicans pushed for tax relief for Americans in high-cost-of-living areas.To resolve outstanding differences, House Republican leaders released a list of eleventh-hour changes to President Donald Trump's "one big, beautiful bill," hours before their full chamber is expected to consider the legislation.New provisions in the bill include a ban on federal funding for transgender adults' medical care, and $12 billion in new funding to reimburse states for money they spent countering the former Biden administration's border policies.MEET THE TRUMP-PICKED LAWMAKERS GIVING SPEAKER JOHNSON A FULL HOUSE GOP CONFERENCEA key request from fiscal conservatives was also honored, with House GOP leaders apparently agreeing to speed up the implementation of work requirements for certain able-bodied recipients of Medicaid.The bill initially had Medicaid work requirements going into effect in 2029.Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, one of the fiscal hawks leading GOP opposition to the bill, told Fox News Digital just after midnight Thursday that he was not sure if the legislation went far enough but suggested the White House could persuade him with other avenues for change."There are things in the executive space, executive actions that we think could take care of some of our concerns on the Medicaid expansion," Roy said.The legislative update also included a victory for blue state Republicans who have been pushing for a higher state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap the current $10,000 cap would be quadrupled to roughly $40,000, but only for people making less than $500,000 per year. The $10,000 cap was first instituted in TCJA."This is what real leadership looks like. President Trump and House Republicans made a promise to the American people to secure our border, protect seniors, cut taxes on tips and overtime, and shut off the spigot of benefits for illegal immigrants," first-term Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital.Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, told Fox News Digital, "More than 77 million Americans made clear at the polls that they want President Trumps America First agenda codified into law, and our One, Big, Beautiful Bill delivers on this promise."But while House GOP leaders are enjoying their hard-fought victory now, the battle over Trump's "big, beautiful bill" is not over.Senate Republicans have already signaled they expect to make changes to the bill when it reaches the upper chamber, despite House GOP leaders publicly urging them to amend as little as possible.There is a significant number of senators who have expressed wariness at the level of Medicaid and SNAP cuts sought by the House. An increase to the SALT deduction cap could also be met with skepticism in the Senate, where no Republican represents a blue state unlike the House, where New York and California districts are critical to the majority.The House and Senate must pass identical bills before sending them to Trump's desk for a signature. GOP leaders have signaled they hope to do that by the Fourth of July.
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