Donald Trump is jubilant in the White House.
Despite unusually strong opposition among his party colleagues, the president's "beautiful" framework was passed in the House of Representatives, days after the Senate approved the same proposal.
"It opens up one of the most fantastic and important decisions in our country's history," Trump writes on Truth Social and continues:
"Among other things, it implies the largest tax cuts and reductions ever considered."
Increased National Debt
Not all party colleagues are equally convinced. Wednesday's vote was postponed and it took a night of negotiations and lengthy persuasion campaigns from House Speaker Mike Johnson to get conservative Republicans to agree to what they normally see as highly positive.
The conservatives also view the increased national debt negatively, and the now-passed framework can, according to the news agency Reuters, increase the national debt by over 5,000 billion dollars.
The cost of the reduced taxes – including an extension of the 2017 reliefs – is estimated by the news agency AP to cost the state 7,000 billion dollars, and such large reductions have not been found by the Republicans.
Our first big beautiful deal also includes several commitments, one of which is that we commit to finding reductions of at least 1,500 billion dollars, said Mike Johnson before the vote.
Does Not Add Up
"The math does not add up," wrote Chip Roy, one of Texas' representatives, on social media.
But he and almost all other conservatives eventually went along with Trump's and Johnson's line, with only two Republicans voting against and siding with the Democrats.
The Chamber ultimately adopted the proposal with 216 yes-votes against 214 no-votes.
I told you that you shouldn't doubt us, said a happy Johnson according to NBC after the vote.
The Democrats' leader in the Chamber, Hakeem Jeffries, was less happy and says about the proposal that it implies "the largest cuts in (health insurance) Medicaid in American history, so that billionaires like Elon Musk can get enormous tax reliefs".
The damage that Donald Trump and the Republicans are unleashing is breathtaking, he says according to AFP.
