Vote passes 217-215 in win for president as Democrats assail proposal over planned cuts to social safety-net programs. Republicans unified behind a budget blueprint, a major step toward delivering Donald Trump’s sprawling tax-cut and immigration agenda over unanimous opposition from Democrats – and deep concerns that it would slash social safety net programs – to advance Trump’s 2025 agenda.
The vote on passage was 217-215, with one Republican voting in opposition and no Democrats supporting the controversial measure. One Democrat did not vote. It followed an unusual series of maneuvers by Speaker Mike Johnson in which he canceled a vote on the bill – apparently because it lacked the votes for passage – and members of the House were advised there would be no further votes for the night. He then promptly reversed course, only to bring the budget up for passage.
The fiscal year 2025 proposal includes approximately $4.5tn in tax cuts alongside increased spending for defense and border security. To offset these costs, the plan tasks congressional committees with finding about $2tn in spending reductions over the next decade.
But some lawmakers are warning that the budget could include an estimated $800bn in potential cuts from Medicaid, a federal program providing healthcare coverage to more than 72 million Americans. Though the resolution does not explicitly target Medicaid, skeptical lawmakers warn there are few alternatives to achieve the $880bn in cuts assigned to the energy and commerce committee.
Johnson and House Republican Steve Scalise said Trump himself had been contacting reluctant members about the need to advance the $4.5tn tax cut plan, which would also fund the deportation of migrants living in the US without documentation, tighten border security, energy deregulation and military spending.
“On a vote like this, you’re always going to have people you’re talking to all the way through the close of the vote,” Scalise said before the roll call. “It’s that tight.”. With Democrats united in opposition, House speaker Mike Johnson’s slim Republican majority cannot afford more than one defection. Several moderate Republicans from vulnerable districts have expressed concerns, particularly those with constituents heavily reliant on Medicaid.
Eight House Republicans, including the California representative David Valadao and the New York representative Nicole Malliotakis, warned in a letter to Johnson last week that “slashing Medicaid would have serious consequences, particularly in rural and predominantly Hispanic communities”.
The Nebraska Republican Don Bacon, representing a district that backed Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential candidate in November, has demanded leadership to prove the proposal “won’t overly cut Medicaid”. Opposition to the House budget resolution has been steadily building over the last few weeks. During last week’s recess, constituent anger over Republicans’ proposed cuts to Medicaid and other social safety net programs as well as Elon Musk’s efforts to dismantle the federal government boiled over at town halls and congressional offices across the country.
Sign up to This Week in Trumpland. A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration. after newsletter promotion. At an earlier Capitol Hill rally on Tuesday, Senator Chris Murphy assailed the Republican budget bill as the “most massive transfer of wealth and resources from poor people and the middle class to the billionaires and corporations in the history of this country”.
He continued: “You’re talking about $880bn of cuts to Medicaid … That means that sick kids die in this country. That means that hospitals in depressed communities and rural communities close their doors, right? That means that drug and addiction treatment centers disappear all across this country.”.
The vote comes after the Senate passed its own budget bill last week – a less contentious one that Trump does not support as much as the House’s. Senate Republicans’ Plan B entails a $340bn measure that covers Trump’s border, defense and energy priorities but leaves the thornier issue of tax policy for later in the year.
The House budget seeks $2tn in spending cuts over 10 years to pay for Trump’s agenda. The tax cuts Trump is seeking would extend breaks passed during his first term in office, his main legislative accomplishment, that are due to expire at the end of this year.
