Washington (AP) – Despite a push of President Donald TrumpThe Republicans of the House suddenly postponed a vote on Wednesday evening on their budgetary frameworkImpossible to convince the conservative conservatives of the GOP who had increased serious doubts on billions of dollars of tax alternatives without reductions in deeper spending.
President Mike Johnson Almost dared the Republican Hardliners To challenge Trump and risk upsetting what the president calls the “great and beautiful bill”, which is at the heart of His agenda tax reductions, mass deportations and a smaller federal government. In the end, he had to take a break, but promised to try again on Thursday.
“Do not doubt us,” said Johnson after blamed for more than an hour from the Chamber with the GOP legislators. “Give us a little space to do our job.”
Pushing the budgetary framework forward would record another important step for Johnson, who had established a deadline for the break of the Spring Break congress on Thursday for having advanced the resolution. A failed vote, especially since the convulsing economy Trump’s trade warswould be a major setback for the republican agenda in Washington.
“Stop in greatness!” Trump had urged the Republicans at a black tie fundraising dinner at the National Building Museum on Tuesday evening.
Trump told Republicans: “Close your eyes and get there.”
But Wednesday afternoon, the result was in mass. At least a dozen conservative republicans were firmly against the plan. Several of them, including members of the ultra -conservative Freedom Caucus, have made the unusual step to walk through the Capitol to meet in private the leaders of the GOP of the Senate to insist on deeper cuts.
As night fell, Johnson pulled a group of Republicans in a private meeting room when the room procedures stopped. After an hour, other votes were postponed. And he returned to find out more.
Johnson said he spoke with Trump for about five minutes while the GOP meeting took place. He said they were trying to understand the minimum number of cuts and savings “that will satisfy everyone.”
The options include the modification of the Senate bill or the fact that a conference committee draws up the differences, among others. “There are some different ideas on the table,” said Johnson.
“We want everyone to have a high degree of comfort on what is happening here, and we have a small subset of members who were not completely satisfied with the product as it is,” said Johnson.
But the conservatives of the GOP, including several of those who have personally met Trump in the White House this week, remained concerned about the fact that the plan of the GOP Senate, Approved last weekenddoes not reduce expenses to the level which, according to them, is necessary to help prevent the deficits.
“Mathematics are not added,” published the representative Chip Roy, R-Texas on social networks. He said he wouldn’t support him.
Representative Andy Harris, R-MD., President of Freedom Caucus, led other people to meet the leader of the majority of the Senate John Thune, Rs.d., and to other Republicans of the Senate.
“All we can do is make sure they understand where we come from and how much we want to work with them to get to the final product,” said Thune afterwards.
But the leader of the GOP of the Senate developed the idea that the room returns a modified version, which would require another voting session all night potential like the senators endured last weekend. “We cannot do this-another voting-a-rama, which drags it indefinitely,” said Thune.
At this stage, the Chamber and the Senate are still in the start phase of a process that will take weeks, even months, while they transform their budgetary resolutions into a legislative text – a final product with more votes later this spring or summer.
The Democrats, in the minority, do not have enough votes to stop the package, but warned against this.
The representative of Pennsylvania, Brendan Boyle, the democrat of classification of the budget committee, said that the budget cuts of the GOP proposed in the Chamber or in the Senate would deeply harm Medicaid, the health care program used by tens of millions of Americans.
“This will have a devastating impact on my district, my state – and the 435 Congress districts across our country,” said Boyle.
The Democratic Leader of the Hakeem Jeffries Chamber of New York said that the Budget Plan of the Republicans was reckless and insensitive because it proposes to reduce budgets to give tax alleviation to the rich.
“We are here to specify,” said Jeffries. “Everyday Americans who find it difficult to reach both ends.”
At the heart of the budgetary framework is the republican effort to preserve approved tax reductions in 2017, during Trump’s first term, while adding the new ones he promised on the campaign campaign. This does not include any tax on wages, social security income and others, raising the price to some 7 billions of dollars during the decade.
The package also allows budgetary increases with some $ 175 billion to pay Trump’s mass deportation operations and for the Ministry of Defense to strengthen military spending.
Everything would be partially paid with steep cuts to domestic programs, including health care, as part of the 2 dollars of discounts described in the GOP version of the Package Chamber, although several GOP senators have reported that they are not willing to go so far.
To extract the costs, the Senate uses an unusual accounting method which does not have the costs of preserving tax reductions of 2017, $ 4.5 billions of dollars, as new expenses, another factor which is in the process of enraging the conservatives of the room.
Two republican senators voted against their package during a night weekend session – Maine Susan Collins senator opposed steep discounts in Medicaid as part of the room, while Kentucky Rand Paul Senator argued that the entire package was based on “fish” mathematics that would add to debt.
The package would also increase the country’s debt limit to allow more loans to pay the bills. Trump wanted the legislators to withdraw the politically difficult issue of the table. With a debt now at 36 billions of dollars, the Treasury Department said that there would be a shortage of funds by August.
But the room and the Senate must also resolve their differences on the limit of the debt. The GOP of the Chamber increases the limit of debt by 4 dollars of dollars, but the GOP of the Senate increased it to 5 billions of dollars, the congress would therefore have to review the question until the election in mid-term 2026.
With Trump’s trade wars on the debate, the Republicans of the House slipped a provision in a procedural vote which would prevent measures in the House – as the Senate took – to disapprove of Trump’s prices.
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The writers of the Associated Press Mary Clare Jalonick, Stephen Groves, Leah Askarinam and Matt Brown contributed to this story.
