House Speaker Mike Johnson found himself in a familiar jam on Tuesday: Conservative Republican holdouts are stalling action on President Donald Trump’s “big” bill of tax breaks and spending reductions, refusing to accept a Senate GOP budget framework approved over the weekend because it doesn’t cut enough.
Trump summoned House Republicans from the conservative Freedom Caucus to the White House for what was described as a contentious midday meeting. Despite Trump’s push, some of the Republicans told the president they could not support the Senate package without a commitment to steeper cuts.
“I’m tired of the fake math in the swamp,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a Freedom Caucus leader, before heading to the White House.
After meeting with Trump, Roy was among those unmoved. “I’m still a no.”
The standoff between the House and the Senate over what Trump calls his “big, beautiful bill” is exposing the limits of the GOP’s long campaign to cut federal spending, especially at a time of economic unrest. Trump’s trade wars, the mass layoffs of thousands of federal workers and Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency slashing through government, are all upending the debate.
With the financial markets roiling over Trump’s tariffs and the economy teetering as worries of a recession flare, the Republican speaker insisted there is no time to waste. Johnson is pulling out all the stops as he scrounges for votes to nudge the process forward before lawmakers leave town Thursday for a two week spring recess.
“We’ve got to get this done,” Johnson said earlier in the day.
Republicans, in control of the White House and Congress, are trying to muscle Trump’s signature domestic policy bill closer to passage, ensuring some $4.5 trillion in tax breaks approved during his first term don’t expire at year’s end. But House Republicans are demanding as much as $2 trillion in budget cuts over the decade, to help offset the costs of the tax breaks, while Senate Republicans, who stayed up late to pass their package early Saturday morning, are hesitant to go that far.
Facing unified opposition to the package from Democrats, who see the GOP package as a tax giveaway to the wealthy paid for by reductions in Medicaid, food stamps and other vital government services, Republicans are struggling to resolve their differences and craft a final product.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries in a letter to Johnson challenged him to a one-on-one debate over their budget differences.
“Mano a Mano,” Jeffries posted on social media. “The American people deserve to know the truth.”
The uproar has thrown the week’s schedule into uncertainty with a planned Wednesday vote potentially pushing to Thursday, or even later.
During a subsequent speech Tuesday night at a National Republican Congressional Committee gathering, Trump called his get-together “a great meeting” while using colorful language to urge holdouts to get onboard.
“One little thing the Republican Party has to do is get together and damn vote,” the president said, adding: “Close your eyes and get there. It’s a phenomenal bill. Stop grandstanding.”
But Trump’s demands appeared to have failed to move many of the House conservatives unmoved.
“The rest of America has to do math and balance their budget. I think we ought to do math here in Washington, D.C.,” said Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., who attended the White House meeting. “It doesn’t take a calculus wiz to know that doesn’t add up.”
Lawmakers said several dozen Republicans are withholding their support.
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., said the Senate cuts are “anemic.”
“I couldn’t sleep at night if I was part of exacerbating the federal deficit,” Burlison said. “While there might be some over there who have an appetite for some of the spending cuts, it’s clear that not everyone does.”
While Republican senators have agreed to consider as much as $2 trillion in cuts, their counterparts in the House are deeply skeptical, if not distrustful, that the Senate GOP will accomplish anywhere near that level of reductions. The Senate bill sets a much lower floor, just $4 billion in cuts, though Senate GOP leaders insist that number will rise.
Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said he does not believe the Senate has the political will to stomach larger cuts and is unconvinced the GOP senators will reach anywhere near the level the House has set.
“The trustworthiness of the Senate is suspect,” Norman said. “It’s like you charge for your house $100,000, And I come back with $1,000. How do you bridge that gulf?”
In fact, the Senate GOP signaled the tough road ahead for the House’s steep spending reductions during their lengthy overnight session.
Several Republicans, including Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, voted with Democrats in favor of amendments to preserve the Medicaid health care program from cuts. None of the amendments was accepted, but one that specifically targeted the $800 billion in reductions from the House framework won GOP support.
Johnson is nowhere near the vote tally he would need to pass the package through with his slim majority.
During a morning meeting of House Republicans a number of lawmakers spoke out — some saying they should simply accept the Senate resolution for now and keep working out the details toward the final package. Others were refusing to go forward without assurances that senators were committed to the same level of reductions.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
