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President Donald Trump’s hopes to pass “one big, beautiful bill” seems to be on life support as Republicans seem to put some of the more ambitious tax cuts on ice.
On Friday, the president posted on Truth Social that he would be open to raising taxes on the wealthy if Democrats would not demonize it.
“The problem with even a “TINY” tax increase for the RICH, which I and all others would graciously accept in order to help the lower and middle income workers, is that the Radical Left Democrat Lunatics would go around screaming,“Read my lips,” the fabled Quote by George Bush the Elder that is said to have cost him the Election,” Trump said, referring to former president George H.W. Bush raising taxes after pledging in 1988 “Read my lips: no new taxes.”
“NO, Ross Perot cost him the Election!” Trump said. “In any event, Republicans should probably not do it, but I’m OK if they do!!!”
This comes as Politico reported that Republicans plan to scale back their attempts to cut taxes as they hope to pass a budget reconciliation bill. Specifically, House Speaker Mike Johnson lowered the number of tax cuts he hoped to pass from $4.5 trillion to $4 trillion.
“Republicans talk a big game … about reining in reckless spending,” House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington told reporters. “You won’t get the full permanency in the tax policy on all the provisions if we don’t get to the $2 trillion in savings, and that’s unfortunate.”
When House Republicans passed their budget resolution in February, the bill stipulated that the House would need to cut $1.5 trillion to cut $4.5 trillion worth of taxes. But if they fail to find $2 trillion worth of savings, the amount of money from the tax cuts would be reduced by the difference between $2 trillion and the final number of money saved.
Republicans hope to pass a major spending bill that will ramp up spending for immigration enforcement along the US-Mexico border and energy production as well as extending the 2017 tax cuts that Trump signed. They plan to do so using the process of budget reconciliation, which allow them to avoid a filibuster from Democrats as long as all parts of the bill are related to the budget.
But Republicans only have a two-seat majority in the House and a three-seat majority in the Senate, making their plans to pass a comprehensive bill more difficult.
Trump has specifically called for Republicans to fulfil his 2024 campaign pledge to remove taxes on tips, Social Security and overtime.
“It would be a very bad idea to not give tax cuts to working people who elected Donald Trump and elected us,” Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri told The Independent last week.
The House version of the reconciliation bill gave specific instructions to each committee to find a targeted number of spending cuts. By far the most politically contentious has been the instruction for the House Energy & Commerce Committee to make $880 billion in cuts.
With the rules for reconciliation forbidding legislation from touching Social Security and Republicans pledging not to touch Medicare, the health insurance program for seniors, many fear they will have to make steep cuts into Medicaid, the health care program that covers children, pregnant women and people with disabilities.
Republicans in the Senate also say they do not want steep cuts to Medicaid or other nutrition assistance programs.
“I’m not excited about the proposal, but I have to say, there are a number of people in both the House and the Senate who are, and if the president weighs in favor of it, then that’s going to be a big factor that we have to take into consideration as well,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
The tax cuts Trump signed in 2017 expire at the end of this year, meaning Republicans risk seeing taxes increase under their watch. Senate Republicans tend to prioritize cutting taxes even if they do not see major spending cuts while many House Republicans do not want to add to the deficit without substantial spending cuts.
At the same time, Republicans face another issue given their small margins: In 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act capped the deduction people can file for state and local taxes to $10,000 for individuals and $20,000 for married couples.
Many Republicans in New York, California and New Jersey, which have higher tax rates than red states, hope to reduce the cap for the deduction, known as the SALT deduction, in the next bill.
On Thursday, New York Republican Reps. Mike Lawler, Elise Stefanik, Andrew Garbarino and Nick LaLota put out a statement criticizing a proposal by House to lift the cap to $30,000.
“It’s not just insulting—it risks derailing President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill,” the statement said. “New Yorkers already send far more to Washington than we get back—unlike many so-called “low-tax” states that depend heavily on federal largesse.”
The statement shows the numerous moving parts Johnson must navigate to get the bill across the finish line.
Last month, Stefanik, the former House Republican Conference chairwoman, was forced to retract her nomination to become US ambassador to the United Nations to help pass the legislation.
