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| Trump budget bill with $4.5 trillion in tax cuts survives House vote | |
| 2025-02-26 | |
| [FoxNews] The House of Representatives has adopted a resolution that will eventually become a massive multi-trillion-dollar bill full of President Donald Trump's priorities on the border, defense, energy and taxes. In a major victory for House GOP leaders, the resolution passed in a 217 to 215 vote. All Democrats voted against the measure, along with lone Republican rebel Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who was concerned about its effect on the national deficit. The next step is now for the relevant House committees to meet and build their own proposals, which will eventually be returned into the framework and negotiated into a compromise deal with the Senate. It was a dramatic scene in the House chamber on Monday night as Republican leaders delayed formally ending a vote for roughly 45 minutes as they worked to convince conservative fiscal hawks to support the legislation. Impatient Democrats called out loud for the vote to be closed as Republicans huddled in varied groups. Two people on the House floor told Fox News Digital that President Donald Trump got involved at one point, speaking to one of the holdouts, Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., by phone. Reps. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, could be seen on the phone at other points on the House floor as well, but it's not clear if they were speaking with Trump. At one point, House GOP leaders appeared to lose confidence that they had enough support and abruptly canceled the planned vote.
Meanwhile, three House Democrats who had been absent early in the day returned for the Tuesday evening vote in dramatic fashion. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., who had a baby roughly a month ago, returned to the House floor with her infant to oppose the bill. And Rep. Kevin Mullin, R-Calif., who was recently hospitalized for an infection, appeared in the chamber aided by a walker. House and Senate Republicans are aiming to use their majorities to advance Trump's agenda via the budget reconciliation process. It's a Senate maneuver that lowers the threshold for passage from two-thirds to a simple majority, but it's used when a party controls both houses of Congress and the White House because it allows that party to pass its policy goals even under the slimmest margins. And Republicans are dealing with slim margins indeed; with current numbers, the House GOP can afford no more than one defection to pass anything without Democratic votes if all liberals are voting. On the Senate side, Republicans can lose no more than two of their own in the reconciliation process. The House resolution aimed to increase spending on border security, the judiciary and defense by roughly $300 billion, while seeking at least $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion in spending cuts elsewhere. As written, the House bill also provided $4.5 trillion to extend President Donald Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions, which expire at the end of this year. An amendment negotiated by House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, and conservatives on his panel would also force lawmakers to make $2 trillion in cuts, or else risk the $4.5 trillion for Trump's tax cuts getting reduced by the difference. The resolution also fulfilled Trump's directive to act on the debt limit, raising it by $4 trillion or roughly two years. A bipartisan deal struck in 2023 saw the debt limit suspended until January 2025. Now, projections show the U.S. could run out of cash to pay its debts by spring if Congress does not act. The resolution's odds were touch and go for much of the week so far, since House lawmakers returned from a week-long recess period Monday. Several fiscal conservatives had demanded more assurances from House GOP leadership that Republicans would seek deep spending cuts to offset the cost of Trump's priorities. | |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #7 who had a baby roughly a month ago, returned to the House floor with her infant to oppose the bill. Ugh. Really? She flip out a titty and start feeding too? "I'm voting against fiscal responsibility to fight against the girl math meme and to save my baby xer." |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2025-02-26 15:25 |
| #6 AHA! ^ someone who reads! |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-02-26 14:10 |
| #5 From the article: The House resolution aimed to increase spending on border security, the judiciary and defense by roughly $300 billion, while seeking at least $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion in spending cuts elsewhere. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2025-02-26 09:16 |
| #4 I believe there were issues of how the CBO scored the budget. |
| Posted by: The Walking Unvaxed 2025-02-26 09:05 |
| #3 ^, Don't sweat it, Fat, it ain't real money after all. |
| Posted by: Mercutio 2025-02-26 08:49 |
| #2 So are we just saying fck it to any semblance of fiscal responsibility? Is this balanced by spending cuts? We really can't play this game f forever |
| Posted by: Fat Bob Cranter1165 2025-02-26 07:38 |
| #1 "Not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning" |
| Posted by: Grom the Affective 2025-02-26 06:25 |