The “One Big Beautiful Bill,” an enormous tax cut and spending package that is a pillar of President Donald Trump’s agenda, has been passed by the United States House of Representatives after nearly 29 hours of debate.
The lower house of the US Congress voted by a margin of 218 to 214 in favour of the bill on Thursday.
The bill was opposed by all 212 Democratic House members. Representatives from the Republican majority, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, joined them.
After the bill’s passage, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, the top Republican, applauded his fellow party members.
“I backed this vision,” I said. I backed the organization. I believe in America”, Johnson said to applause.
Trump will now formally enact the bill before it reaches the White House. Before July 4, the country’s Independence Day, the Republican president had requested that the legislation be passed by his fellow party members.
As a result of the new legislation, the US will lift its debt ceiling — the amount the federal government is allowed to borrow — by $5 trillion.
Additionally, the bill strengthens Trump’s top priorities, immigration enforcement, by putting tens of billions of dollars into the country, as well as the tax cuts that he supported in his first term in office.
The bill reduced social initiatives like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which are administered by the government to low-income households, in order to cover those costs.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the bill will increase the number of people without health insurance by 17 million over the next 10 years.
Additionally, it was predicted that the US’s deficit, or the amount of money owed, would increase by about $3.3 trillion over the same time.
The bill was widely criticized by Democratic lawmakers as a massive redistribution of wealth between the poor and the wealthy, despite the fact that the wealthy will primarily gain from the tax cuts.
Republican supporters like Trump have countered that the bill will fuel growth and cut waste and fraud in the programmes like Medicaid.
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” made its way through Congress’ chambers, but not everyone did. Some fiscal conservatives objected to the rise in the national debt, and there were several Republican holdouts who feared the effects of the Medicaid cuts on low-income and rural communities.
“FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE”, Trump said in a social media post on Wednesday night. “RIDICULOUS!! “! “
Even Trump’s erstwhile ally, billionaire Elon Musk, has publicly opposed the bill over provisions he described as “pork”.
A speech that broke records
In the lead-up to Thursday’s vote, Democrats attempted to stall, with the stated aim of allowing voters more time to contact their local representatives in protest.
Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries spearheaded the effort by using the “magic minute,” which enables party leaders to speak from the House floor as long as they want.
Jeffries extended that right to an oath to Republicans in an hours-long petition to oppose what he characterized as Trump’s harmful policies. He started at around 4: 53am local time (8: 53 GMT) and ended past 1: 39pm (17: 39 GMT).
It took approximately eight hours and 44 minutes to deliver the longest speech ever delivered on the House floor.
Jeffries said to the House, “I’m here to take my sweet time on behalf of the American people,” with his voice swaying at times throughout.
He directed his remarks to the speaker of the House, a leadership role occupied by Republican Mike Johnson.
“Independence Day may be Donald Trump’s deadline. That isn’t my deadline, Jeffries said. “You know why, Mr. Speaker? We don’t support Donald Trump. We serve the American people.
Jeffries warned that the “One Big Beautiful Bill” — which he dubbed the “One Big Ugly Bill” — “hurts everyday Americans and rewards billionaires with massive tax breaks”. He continued, “The legislation was simply reckless.”
He made a point of referring to the late Republican senator from Arizona, who had fought for Trump on the healthcare debate, by calling his colleagues across the aisle to show them “John McCain-level courage.”
McCain has often been cited as a symbol of bipartisanship in Congress, and Jeffries urged his Republican colleagues to reach across the aisle.
“We embraced the election of President Donald Trump and offered to collaborate with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle whenever and wherever possible to improve the lives of the American people,” Jeffries said.
“But the way that House Republicans have gone is to go it alone and try to smear this One Big Ugly Bill, which is full of extreme right-wing policy priorities, down the throats of the American people,” said Speaker.
In a poll last week from Quinnipiac University, for example, just 29 percent of respondents indicated they were in favour of the legislation, while 55 percent were against it.
Later, Jeffries compared Trump’s resistance to the US’s revolutionary war era, saying, “We’re not here to bend the knee to any wannabe king.” Democrats swelled into cheers and chanted his name “Hakeem!” when he finally said he would give back the floor. Hakeem! “Hakeem” !
Republicans rally in final stretch
The House had been in session overnight as part of a marathon session in order to get to Thursday’s vote.
However, Speaker Johnson himself spoke briefly to the House minutes before the dramatic vote, urging Republicans to show a united front.
He also took a jab at Jeffries’s record-breaking speech: “It takes a lot longer to build a lie than to tell the simple truth”.
“We’ve been waiting too long,” Some of us have literally been awake for days,” Johnson continued. “With this One Big Beautiful Bill, we are going to make this country stronger, safer and more prosperous than ever before, and every American is going to benefit from that”.
He added that “our reforms will make programs like Medicaid stronger with our reforms.”
Two Republicans did not back away from their party caucus and cast a ballot against the “One Big Beautiful Bill” at the final hurdle.
One of the nay-votes, Representative Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania released a statement said he had previously voted to “strengthen Medicaid”. He claimed that the “One Big Beautiful Bill” had the exact opposite effect in the Senate.
The Senate amendments defied our standards, according to Fitzpatrick, despite the fact that the original House language was written in a way that protected our community.
“I believe in, and will always fight for, policies that are thoughtful, compassionate, and good for our community”.
Massie, by contrast, had always been a waiter. His contention on social media was the rising national debt.
“I voted No on final passage because it will significantly increase U. S. budget deficits in the near term, negatively impacting all Americans through sustained inflation and high interest rates”, he wrote.
a process that lasted for several months
Republicans have had to travel a long way to get to Thursday’s vote, which has already taken them months. The House first passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” on May 22, in another overnight vote.
The legislation was passed by the least narrow margins in that May vote, with 215 supporting and 214 opposing. At the time, Ohio’s representatives, Massie and Warren Davidson, and Maryland’s Andy Harris, both voted “present,” joined a unified Democratic front in opposing the bill. Two more Republicans missed the vote entirely.
The Senate was faced with yet another uphill battle as a result of that. 53 Republicans, 47 Democrats, and left-leaning independents make up the 100-seat chamber.
To avoid facing a Democratic filibuster, Republicans subjected the “One Big Beautiful Bill” to the Byrd Rule, which allows legislation to pass with a simple majority.
However, Republicans had to veto provisions that had no less than minimal budget impact or increased the deficit outside of a 10-year window in order to comply with the Byrd Rule.
The bill’s revised Senate version was a nail-biting vote, though. On July 1, after another all-nighter, the vote was 50 to 50, with three Republicans siding with the Democrats. The tie-breaker was cast by Vice President JD Vance to advance the legislation.
Democrats did, however, pull off a small symbolic victory by removing the final piece of legislation from the list of names: “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
It was the Senate’s version of the bill that the House voted on Thursday. Since supporting the bill, at least one Republican senator, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, has resentment toward it.
The people of Alaska are the ones who worry most, especially when the potential demise of our most underserved social safety net programs, such as Medicaid and SNAP benefits, are concerned, she wrote in a statement earlier this week.
“Let’s not kid ourselves. This process was terrible; it was a desperate attempt to meet an artificial deadline that had put the institution to the test.
Source: Aljazeera
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