Johnson vows to try again after GOP holdouts block action on Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ budget bill

WASHINGTON AP After abruptly halting votes House Speaker Mike Johnson vowed to try again Thursday to approve a Republican budget framework having worked into the night to satisfy GOP holdouts who refused to advance trillions of dollars in tax breaks without deeper spending cuts Even a hefty push from President Donald Trump couldn t heave the package to approval Johnson was forced to abandon Wednesday s scheduled action as the Republican hardliners left him without enough assistance and risked upending what the president calls the big beautiful bill which is central to his agenda of tax cuts mass deportations and a smaller federal establishment The president is very anxious for us to get this done Johnson R-La mentioned as he left a late-night meeting with the GOP lawmakers He disclosed he expects votes on Thursday Pushing the budget framework forward would log another milestone for Johnson who can only lose a scant detractors from his slim majority A failed vote particularly as the business sector was convulsing over Trump s contract wars would be a major setback for the Republican agenda in Washington Stop grandstanding Trump had admonished Republicans during a black-tie fundraising dinner at the National Building Museum earlier in the week Trump recounted the Republicans Close your eyes and get there But by Wednesday afternoon the outcome was in flux At least a dozen conservative Republicans if not more stood firmly against the plan Several of them including members of the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus made the peculiar move of walking across the Capitol to meet privately with Senate GOP leaders to insist on deeper cuts As night fell Johnson pulled a group of Republicans into a private meeting room as House proceedings came to a standstill They stayed into the night hashing out alternatives Johnson stated he spoke with Trump for about five minutes while the GOP meeting was taking place The GOP speaker noted they re trying to figure out the minimal number of cuts and savings that will satisfy everyone Options include amending the Senate bill or having a conference committee work out the differences among others There s a sparse different ideas on the table Johnson stated We want everybody to have a high degree of comfort about what is happening here and we have a small subset of members who weren t totally satisfied with the product as it stands Johnson stated But House GOP conservatives including several of those who met personally with Trump at the White House this week remained concerned that the Senate GOP s blueprint approved last weekend does not slash spending to the level they believe is necessary to help prevent soaring deficits The Math Does Not Add Up Rep Chip Roy R-Texas posted on social media He noted he would not endorsement it Rep Andy Harris R-Md the chair of the Freedom Caucus led others to met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune R-S D and other top Senate Republicans All we can do is make sure that they understand where we re coming from and how close we want to work with them to get to the final product Thune noted afterward But the Senate GOP leader panned the idea of the House sending back an amended version which would require another feasible all-night voting session like the one senators endured last weekend We can t do that another vote-a-rama that drags it on indefinitely Thune mentioned The House and Senate are still at the beginning phase of a process that will take weeks if not months as they turn their budget resolutions into legislative text a final product with more votes ahead later this spring or summer Democrats in the minority do not have enough votes to stop the package but have warned against it House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York noted the Republicans budget plan is reckless and callous as it proposes slashing budgets to give tax breaks to the wealthy We re here to make it clear Jeffries noted Hands off everyday Americans struggling to make ends meet Central to the budget framework is the Republican effort to preserve the tax breaks approved in during Trump s first term while potentially adding the new ones he promised on the campaign trail That includes no taxes on tipped wages Social Defense income and others ballooning the price tag to selected trillion over the decade The package also allows for budget increases with various billion to pay for Trump s mass deportation operation and as much for the Defense Department to bolster military spending It all would be partly paid for with steep cuts to domestic programs including robustness care as part of the trillion in reductions outlined in the House GOP version of the package though several GOP senators have signaled they are not willing to go that far To clip costs the Senate is using an exceptional accounting method that does not count the costs of preserving the tax cuts particular trillion as new spending another factor that is enraging the House conservatives Two Republican senators voted against their package during an overnight weekend session Maine Sen Susan Collins objected to steep cuts to Medicaid in the House s framework while Kentucky Sen Rand Paul argued the whole package relied on fishy math that would add to the debt The package would also boost the nation s debt limit to allow more borrowing to pay the bills Trump had craved lawmakers to take the politically challenging issue off the table With debt now at trillion the Treasury Department has reported it will run out of funds by August But the House and Senate need to resolve their differences on the debt limit as well The House GOP raises the debt limit by trillion but the Senate GOP boosted it to trillion so Congress would not have to revisit the issue again until after the fall midterm balloting With Trump s pact wars hovering over the debate House Republicans tucked a provision into a procedural vote that would prevent House action as the Senate has taken to disapprove of Trump s tariffs Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick Stephen Groves Leah Askarinam and Matt Brown contributed to this analysis Source