WASHINGTON (AP) — 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 to the White House for a midday meeting as the beleaguered speaker pulls out all the stops to nudge the process forward before lawmakers leave Thursday for a two-week spring recess.
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.
“We’ve got to get this done,” Johnson said after a spirited morning meeting of House Republicans.
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.
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.
“I’m tired of the fake math in the swamp,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a leader of the House Freedom Caucus.
“They are fine saying that there are unlimited tax cuts, but they are unwilling to say they will do spending cuts,” Roy said. “The Senate has produced a budget that is phony math, and I’m not going to support it.”
The uproar has thrown the week’s schedule into uncertainty, with a planned Wednesday vote potentially pushing to Thursday, or even later.
Trump weighed in late Monday on social media, urging swift action.
“There is no better time than now to get this Deal DONE!” the president posted on social media. “Everyone is going to be happy with the result. Passage will make, even the subject of World Trade, far easier and better for the U.S.A. THE HOUSE MUST PASS THIS BUDGET RESOLUTION, AND QUICKLY — MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
But Trump’s demands left 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. “It doesn’t take a calculus wiz to know that doesn’t add up.”
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.
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.
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Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.
