US House Republicans propelled US President Donald Trump’s big multitrillion-dollar tax breaks and spending cuts bill to final passage on Thursday in the US Congress, overcoming multiple setbacks to approve his signature second-term policy package before a Fourth of July deadline.
The tight roll call, 218-214, came at a potentially high political cost, with two Republicans joining all Democrats opposed. Republican leaders worked overnight, and the president himself leaned on a handful of skeptics to drop their opposition. US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of the Democratic Party delayed voting for more than eight hours by seizing control of the floor with a record-breaking speech against the bill.
Trump celebrated his political victory in Iowa, where he attended the launch of a year of events marking the country’s 250th anniversary.
Photo: AFP
“I want to thank Republican congressmen and women, because what they did is incredible,” he said. The president complained that Democrats voted against the bill because “they hate Trump, but I hate them too.”
Trump was due to sign the legislation after press time last night at the White House.
The outcome delivers a milestone for the president and his party. It was a long-shot effort to compile a lengthy list of Republican priorities into what they called his “one big beautiful bill,” at nearly 900 pages. With Democrats unified in opposition, the bill would become a defining measure of Trump’s return to the White House, aided by Republican control of Congress.
Photo: EPA
“You get tired of winning yet?” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, invoking Trump as he called the vote.
Republicans celebrated with a rendition of the Village People’s Y.M.C.A., a song the president often plays at his rallies, during a ceremony afterward.
At its core, the package’s priority is US$4.5 trillion in tax breaks enacted in 2017 during Trump’s first term that would expire if Congress failed to act, along with new ones. This includes allowing workers to deduct tips and overtime pay, and a US$6,000 deduction for most older adults earning less than US$75,000 a year.
There is also a hefty investment, about US$350 billion, in national security and Trump’s deportation agenda, and to help develop the “Golden Dome” defensive system over the US.
To help offset the lost tax revenue, the package includes US$1.2 trillion in cutbacks to Medicaid health care and food stamps, largely by imposing new work requirements, including for some parents and older people, and a major rollback of green energy tax credits.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the package would add US$3.3 trillion to the deficit over the decade, and 11.8 million more people would go without health coverage.
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