Closing summary
We will shortly be continuing our coverage of the debate in a new live blog, so here is a summary of the day’s events so far:
The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives on Thursday advanced President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-cut and spending bill, a procedural step setting the stage for possible passage of the legislation in a vote expected later in the day, reports Reuters. The House voted 219-213 to move forward.
Flanked by nearly every member of his caucus, Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, of New York delivered a pointed message: With all Democrats voting “no,” they only need to flip four Republicans to prevent the bill from passing, reports the Associated Press (AP). Jeffries invoked the “courage” of the late Sen. John McCain giving a thumbs-down to the GOP effort to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, and singled out Republicans from districts expected to be highly competitive in 2026, including two from Pennsylvania.
However, Jeffries has been talking for almost three hours now and has vowed to “take my sweet time” telling the stories of Americans who will be affected negatively by what he calls Donald Trump’s “one big, ugly bill”.
The chamber began taking procedural votes on the bill earlier in the day, but in a sign of the measure’s challenges one was kept open for more than seven hours, making it the longest vote in the history of the House of Representatives.
Trump has demanded the legislation – known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act – be on his desk by Friday 4 July and spent much of Wednesday holding meetings and phone calls with skeptical Republican lawmakers. As the rule stalled, he wrote on Truth Social: “FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE. RIDICULOUS!!!”
For the bill to pass it must approve the version passed by the Senate on Tuesday when vice-president JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote after an all-night session. Johnson has acknowledged the bill “went a little further than many of us would have preferred” in its changes, particularly to Medicaid.
Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson said as he headed to the House floor for the rule vote: “We’re in a good place right now. This is the legislative process, this is exactly how I think the framers intended for it to work.” But after voting against the motion, Keith Self, a conservative Texas congressman, blasted the bill as having failed to save enough money, curb green energy incentives or crack down on transgender rights.
The bill in its current form would add $3.3tn to the US budget deficit through 2034, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates.
Last November, Donald Trump made a solemn vow to all Americans: “Every citizen, I will fight for you, your family and your future every single day.” Eight months later, Trump is vigorously backing many policies that will mean pain for millions.
Trump has pushed to enact the Republican budget bill, which would make significant cuts to Medicaid, Obamacare, and food assistance, and would do the greatest damage to those Americans struggling hardest to make ends meet – the 30% of the US population that lives in households earning under $50,000 a year.
Even as Trump and Republican lawmakers are rushing to cut over $1.4tn in health and food assistance for non-affluent Americans, Trump continues to pressure Congress to extend over $3tn in tax cuts that disproportionately help the wealthy and corporations.
Trump has embraced these Robin-Hood-in-reverse policies, even though it was voters earning less than $50,000 a year who delivered victory to him last November. They favored him over Kamala Harris by 50% to 48%, according to exit polls, while Trump and Harris tied among voters earning $50,000 or more a year.
Several social policy experts said Trump has engaged in hypocrisy at best and betrayal at worst when it comes to the working-class and blue-collar Americans he promised to fight for. Speaking about the Republicans’ “big, beautiful” budget bill, Sharon Parrott, president of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, said: “Who’s getting hit, who’s bearing the cost? It’s people with low and middle incomes, people that the president and many Republican policymakers promised to serve and support in the last election.”
