President Donald Trump and the House Republicans continued to negotiate a major bill for tax and expenses on Wednesday, organizing discussions in the White House before a potential vote.
Trump and his staff spent several hours with members of the House Freedom Caucus, who refused to support a bill which, according to them, is not far enough to reduce expenses.
Many of Trump’s main priorities concern legislation: extend the tax reductions adopted in 2017, eliminating taxes on advice, spending more on defense and security of borders and reducing government health care programs.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the bill would add approximately 2.3 TN (1.7 tn £) to the American national debt over the next 10 years.
Trump has campaigned on promises to reduce the American budget deficit – which means the annual difference between government tax revenue and its expenses – which are currently amounted to around 36.2 V (27 tn £).
The negotiators worked in the evening on Tuesday, including a meeting of a chamber committee which started at 01:00, local time (05:00 GMT) on Wednesday.
Because the Republicans have a close majority in the House and the Democrats oppose the legislation uniformly, Trump cannot risk losing a handful of votes of his own party. He and the allies of the Congress are also under the pressure of a self-imposed deadline to have the bill adopted by the end of the month, which is now at 10 days.
After winning approval in the House, the bill will go to the Senate led by Les Républicains, which could make its own changes.
After leaving the negotiations of the White House on Wednesday, President Mike Johnson said that the full room could vote on the bill on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning, according to Politico.
The president described his proposal as “large, beautiful, Bill” – The measure is now officially known as “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” – but has been faced with the opposition of the members of the House Freedom Caucus who want reductions in additional expenses.
At the same time, several Republicans representing districts of the states, originally democratic, wish more important tax reductions for their voters – to be made by increasing the credits that these voters receive for the payment of state taxes at relatively high rates.
Trump and Johnson try to win the two dissident factions, which could prove to be a delicate balance.
Thomas Massie, from Kentucky, one of the republican conservations of the Chamber, went to X to complain about closed negotiations. Trump earlier this week called him “stands”.
“The main provisions of Big Beautiful Bill are still in the process of negotiation and writing, but we are told that we will vote today,” wrote Massie. “Shouldn’t we take more than a few hours to read such a big bill and this consequence?”
Trump also visited Capitol Hill on Tuesday to put pressure on the bill, to meet Republicans and to exhale both budgetary hawks and tax supporters to accept the table bill.
But it was not clear if he had managed to swing many votes.
The Democrats, saying that the bill would benefit the rich and unjustly punished the Americans at low income, would have clearly indicated in the hearings of the committee and on the social networks which they will vote against him.
The White House rejected concerns about American ball debt, arguing that tax reductions will stimulate the economy. Trump also said that his separate prices program would bring additional income to the federal government. However, most economists and experts are suitable for the non -partisan CBO that the bill will add to the debt.
Supporters of the bill remained optimistic about its possible prospects.
“Failure is not an option to do so,” said Missouri’s Republican Jason Smith.
A separate CBO analysis indicated that the bill would harm the poorest Americans while benefiting 10% of employees.
“We are going to ask Americans to finance tax reductions for billionaires on national debt – on the credit card,” said Democratic Gwen Moore of Wisconsin.
The tight margin between the parts of the house means that Trump and his allies need almost unanimous support for the Republicans to adopt the measure.
House president Mike Johnson said he wanted the bill to be adopted by Monday, May 26, the Memorial Day holidays in the United States.
Although it is possible that the bill can appear in the full house on Wednesday or Thursday, it is unlikely that the speaker is at risk unless he is convinced that the measure will pass.
Even if the bill adopts the Chamber, it is far from becoming law. The legislation would move to the Senate – then will be subject to a probable negotiation process to reconcile two versions of the bill – before being able to be sent to the president for his signature.
