A group of Republicans have banded together to make demands of the Trump administration surrounding the president’s much-hyped megabill.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise were warned by 32 House Republicans that Trump’s “big, beautiful” reconciliation bill must adhere to strict spending cuts to make it across the finish line in a letter issued Wednesday.
The dozens of Republicans who signed the letter demanded that “under the House’s framework, the reconciliation bill must not add to the deficit,” Politico reported.
The letter—led by House Budget Committee Vice Chair Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania—served as a warning shot amid simmering intraparty dissent over how to cut an estimated $2 trillion in federal spending needed to finance Trump’s budget plan, which aims to expand tax cuts under the GOP’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, eliminate taxes on tips, and beef up funding for the administration’s immigration crackdown, CNN reported.
The letter called for the reduction of planned tax credits if lawmakers cannot reduce spending enough to hit deficit reduction targets. Smucker set clear parameters around the conditions in which the Ways and Means Committee would cut taxes with an amendment dictating that taxes can be cut by $4.5 trillion only if GOP lawmakers cut spending by $2 trillion.
“The House budget resolution assumes that enacting President Trump’s agenda, including extending the 2017 tax cuts, will generate $2.5 trillion in additional revenue through economic growth,” the letter noted. “This means that all additional tax cuts or increases in spending above this level must be offset.”
On Tuesday, Speaker Johnson assured that the budget package is on a “very ambitious time table” to make it through the lower chamber by Memorial Day, CBS reported. Committees face a May 9 deadline to complete their components, with lawmakers hoping for markups next week.
“We can pass that by Memorial Day. That was our original timeframe,” said Johnson.
On the heels of an intensifying GOP civil war, Trump appeared to double down on his budget promises in a Truth Social post on Wednesday.
“We are making great progress on ‘The One, Big, Beautiful Bill.’ Our Economy is doing well, but it’s going to BOOM in a way never seen before. We are going to do NO TAX ON TIPS, NO TAX ON SENIORS’ SOCIAL SECURITY, NO TAX ON OVERTIME, and much more,” he wrote, adding, “It will be the biggest Tax Cut for Middle and Working Class Americans by far, and it is time for Main Street to WIN. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
