April 10 (UPI) — The House voted to approve a budget Thursday, which will allow Republicans to enact President Donald Trump’s tax cut and deregulation plan, known as the “big beautiful bill.”
The final vote was 216-214, with Republican Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Victoria Spartz, R- Ind., aligned with all Democrats, who voted against it.
“Congratulations to the House on the passage of a bill that sets the stage for one of the greatest and most important signings in the history of our country,” declared Trump via Truth Social Thursday, then added “among many other things, it will be the largest tax and regulation cuts ever even contemplated.”
“If you were trying to hasten financial collapse of our country and bribe voters to go along with it, the strategy wouldn’t look much different than what Congress is doing today,” posted Massie to X Thursday, who continued “The big beautiful bill cuts taxes while keeping spending on an increasingly unsustainable trajectory.”
Spartz posted to social media Thursday that “the instructions we voted on today are still setting us up for the largest deficit increase in the history of our Republic,” to which she added “In good conscience, I couldn’t vote yes.”
With the Senate’s passage of the resolution last week, the House budget passage allows Republicans to begin to write and drum up support for the package which covers border security investments, military spending and large tax cuts, among other fiscal facets.
There’s also the need to protect in-demand safety-net programs like Medicaid while cutting trillions of dollars, and an eventual compromise between GOP members who differ on financial views will be required to get the bill passed.
“The budget resolution is not law,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in an X post Tuesday, “Any final reconciliation bill must include historic spending reductions, while also safeguarding essential programs.”
“This is a collaborative process,” Johnson added, “Congressional Republicans are working together to get this done.”
One maneuver that helped get the resolution passed was the promise made by Johnson to secure at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts to safety-net programs in the final package.
The budget structure gives Republicans space to decide which expenditures will go into the definitive version of the package. Although not required, $175 billion can be allotted for border security and immigration enforcement, along with as much as an additional $150 billion for military spending.
The GOP plan is also to extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts and enact up to $1.5 trillion in new tax breaks, but only to increase the federal deficit by $1.5 trillion.
Democrats are already on the attack over the plan. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., posted to X after the vote Thursday, to which he chose “No,” that “MAGA’s proposed budget swings a wrecking ball at Medicaid and millions of Americans.”
Rep. Greg Landsman, D-Ohio, posted Thursday that “They just passed a budget that will require a nearly $1 trillion cut to healthcare,” while Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., said online Thursday that “The Republican budget guts Medicaid [and] SNAP to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.”
He then added that “Democrats stood united against these devastating cuts, and we aren’t giving up.”
