WASHINGTON (AP) — Against the odds, House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying Tuesday to muscle a Republican budget blueprint to passage, a step toward delivering President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” with $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and $2 trillion in spending cuts over stiff opposition from Democrats — and even some Republicans.
With almost no votes to spare in Johnson’s bare-bones GOP majority, the speaker is fighting on all fronts — against Democrats, uneasy rank-and-file Republicans and skeptical GOP senators — as he works to keep the package on track. Votes set for Tuesday evening are in jeopardy.
“There may be a vote tonight, there may not be,” Johnson said after a early meeting at the Capitol.
Johnson is trying to convince reluctant Republican lawmakers to launch the process, assuring them there’s still time in the weeks ahead to sort out the details of the proposals. Trump invited some GOP lawmakers to the White House.
“We’re working right now to get everybody on board,” Johnson said. “Everybody wants to be on this train, and not in front of it.”
The package, if approved, would be a crucial part of the budget process as Trump pushes the Republicans who control Congress to approve a massive bill that would extend tax breaks, which he secured during his first term but are expiring later this year, while also cutting spending across federal programs and services.
It’s all unfolding as billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk is tearing through federal agencies with his Department of Government Efficiency firing thousands of workers nationwide, and angry voters are starting to confront lawmakers at town hall meetings back home.
Democrats are vowing to oppose, if not bury, the whole package.
“Our very way of life as a country is under assault,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on the steps of the Capitol.
Flanked by Americans who said they would be hurt by cuts to Medicaid and other social programs, the Democrats booed the GOP budget blueprint and promised to try to stop it.
“We are not going to stand for it one minute,” Jeffries said. “House Democrats will not provide a single vote to this reckless Republican budget — not one.”
Slashing government is not always popular at home
Republicans are running into a familiar problem: Slashing federal spending is typically easier said than done. With cuts to the Pentagon and other programs largely off limits, much of the other government outlays go for health care, food stamps, student loans and programs relied on by their constituents.
Several Republican lawmakers worry that scope of the cuts eyed — particularly some $880 billion to the committee that handles health care spending, including Medicaid, for example, or $230 billion to the agriculture committee that funds food stamps — will be too harmful to their constituents back home.
GOP leaders insist Medicaid is not specifically listed in the initial 60-page budget framework, but lawmakers wants assurances those programs will be protected as the plans are developed in the weeks to come.
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., said Trump has promised he would not allow Medicaid to be cut.
“The president was clear about that. I was clear about that,” Lawler said. “We will work through this, but the objective today is to begin the process.”
At the same time, GOP deficit hawks are withholding support until they are convinced it won’t add to the nation’s $36 trillion debt load. They warn it will pile onto debt because the cost of the tax breaks — at least $4.5 trillion over the decade outweighs the $2 trillion in spending cuts to government programs.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., center, departs a news conference joined from left by Rep. Abraham Hamadeh, R-Ariz., and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., after discussing work on a spending bill, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
“I’m not voting for that,” said Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio.
Trump is meeting with several Republicans later Tuesday at the White House, including Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz. who joined a group of GOP lawmakers from the Congressional Hispanic Conference raising concerns about protecting Medicaid, food stamps and Pell grants for college.
“While we fully support efforts to rein in wasteful spending and deliver on President Trump’s agenda, it is imperative that we do not slash programs that support American communities across our nation,” wrote Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, and several other GOP lawmakers in the Hispanic Conference.
Democrats protest tax cuts for wealthy
Democrats in the House and the Senate are vowing to fight the whole process. “This is not what people want,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., during a rules debate ahead of planned votes.
“We all know that trickle-down economics,” he said about the 2017 tax breaks that flowed mainly to the wealthy, “don’t work.”
Trump has signaled a preference for the “big” bill but also appears to enjoy a competition between the House and the Senate, lawmakers said, as he pits the Republicans against each other to see which version will emerge on a path toward approval.
Senate Republicans, wary that Johnson can lift his bill over the finish line, launched their own scaled-back $340 billion package last week. It’s focused on sending Trump money his administration needs for its deportation and border security agenda now, with plans to tackle the tax cuts separately later this year.
“I’m holding my breath. I’m crossing my fingers,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who said he is rooting for the House’s approach as the better option. “I think a one-shot is their best opportunity.”
The House GOP faces pitfalls ahead
Johnson, whose party lost seats in last November’s election, commands one of the thinnest majorities in modern history, which means he must keep almost every Republican in line or risk losing the vote.
GOP leaders are trying to convince lawmakers that that this week’s vote is just a first step. It seemed to be clearing a mid-afternoon test vote.
The budget is being compiled during a lengthy process that first sends instructions to the various House and Senate committees, which will then have several weeks to devise more detailed plans for additional debate and votes.
Rep. Jodey Arrington, the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee, told reporters he recognizes the tension between Republicans who want more cuts and those from politically competitive districts who “have a higher level of sensitivity to some of the spending reforms.”
Arrington said with economic growth assumptions, from 1.8% as projected by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to 2.6% as projected by House Republicans, the package would generate about $2.6 trillion in savings over 10 years and would ensure the plan helps reduce the deficit.
Some fiscal advocacy groups view the GOP’s economic projections as overly optimistic.
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Associated Press writers Leah Askarinam and Stephen Groves contributed reporting.
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