House Republicans Face Difficult Trade-Offs to Pass Tax Bill
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What challenges do House Republicans face with the tax bill?
Every time people have bet against House Speaker Mike Johnson, they have ended up losing. And a piece of that track record is he has got the very powerful hammer held by President Donald Trump, who magically, when votes come up on the floor, is able to twist enough arms that bills get through this narrow majority.
How is Speaker Mike Johnson influencing the tax bill?
Plus, why hundreds of thousands of US manufacturing jobs are unfilled. And President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to agree on an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine. It's Monday, May 19th. I'm Alex Oseleff for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that moved the world today. House Republicans have set a deadline of Memorial Day, May 26th, to pass President Trump's big, beautiful tax and spending bill. And though the bill passed the critical committee phase in the House last night, there are big parts of it that lawmakers are still hammering out. Siobhan Hughes covers Congress for The Wall Street Journal. Siobhan, like I mentioned, the bill passed a key hurdle.
Where does it stand now?
What are the key components still in discussion for the tax bill?
It stands where it has stood all year, which is very much in flux. Mike Johnson, the House speaker, eked out a win when he persuaded some holdout conservatives to drop their resistance, keep going. But the problem is that there's still very much a live conversation about the big three. the clean energy, the Medicaid work requirements, and the state and local taxes, but that's far from a dispositive list. There are a lot of other little items in the mix, and we're not going to know if all of those are going to be sorted out, really, until we see that vote on the House floor.
Let's say the bill passes this vote in the House. What happens next?
What happens if the tax bill passes the House?
So if this bill passes the House, it next heads to the Senate where Republican senators and this bill is going to have to pass with only Republican votes and a simple majority. Republican senators have made very clear they have no intention of swallowing whole what the House has produced. There are some Senate Republicans who don't like what they see coming out of the House in terms of Medicaid. And then, of course, there is the usual wrangling where the senators, each of them realizing they've got a lot of leverage here, is going to try to figure out how much of their own wish list they can get incorporated into this bill.
The way the bill currently stands, it would add trillions of dollars to the deficit. That was one thing that was pretty worrisome for markets this morning. What are Republicans planning to do about that?
Well, this is part of the fight that's going on in the House right now. You're seeing the conservatives really want to get some more spending cuts in here. But beyond that, and the Republicans are not tipping their hand here on the specifics, but generally, a lot of Republicans are looking to Trump's budget director, Russ Vogt, And what he and his allies over in the Department of Government Efficiency are going to do to try to cut spending, essentially by going around Congress to do it. And there's always been some sense kind of latent underneath the surface that some of the cuts being enacted through the executive branch could potentially be enough to get the country to a better fiscal place.
That was WSJ reporter Siobhan Hughes. Thank you, Siobhan. Thanks. Good to be here. Despite the tax bill and a downgrade of the U.S. by Moody's ratings last Friday, U.S. stocks finished the day slightly higher. The Dow rose about 0.3 percent, and the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq edged ahead less than 0.1 percent.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What challenges do House Republicans face with the tax bill?
0:40–0:59
2
How is Speaker Mike Johnson influencing the tax bill?
0:59–1:48
3
What are the key components still in discussion for the tax bill?
1:48–2:26
4
What happens if the tax bill passes the House?
2:26–4:19
5
How are Republicans addressing potential deficits from the tax bill?
4:19–6:35
6
What is the significance of the UK and EU trade agreement?
6:35–12:16
Speakers
5 identifiedMore from WSJ What’s News
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