As Republicans barrel full steam ahead with President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill,” several divisions over components of the package linger.
Earlier this month, both chambers approved a budget blueprint that resulted from weeks of negotiations between the House and Senate, unlocking the reconciliation process being used to pass the package.
Dubbed the “one big, beautiful bill” by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), it is expected to include measures related to tax cuts, America’s energy sector, and securing the border.
As a reconciliation bill, it would be immune from the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the Senate—but only if House Republicans can agree on a package first.
Given Republicans’ narrow majority in the lower chamber—Johnson can spare no more than three defections—passing this package will be a herculean task for leadership.
The core components of the Republican budget proposal unveiled by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)—bolstering border security, funding energy expansion, and new defense appropriations—are generally non-controversial with broad swaths of Republicans.
That includes both ongoing efforts to stem the flow of illegal immigrants across the U.S. southern border with Mexico and what Trump has promised will be the “largest deportation operation in American history.”
Additionally, the package will include new funding for energy and instructs the House and Senate to allocate an additional $100 billion and $150 billion, respectively, toward defense over a decade.
These aspects of the bill are among the least controversial with Republicans. Some other components will be a tougher sell.
The centerpiece of the Senate’s budget blueprint, which has since been approved by the House, is its plan to make permanent the personal income tax cuts first authorized by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
The GOP proposal comes out to a top-line cost of around $4.5 trillion in lost potential tax revenue for the government.
Without congressional action, those cuts will expire at the end of 2025, and rates will increase—a potential political nightmare for Republicans at the ballot box in 2026 if the issue isn’t addressed before Tax Day.
This could face challenges in both the House and Senate, however. Without steep spending cuts alongside these tax cuts, critics fear that the deficit could balloon.
But while conservatives want steeper cuts, moderates want more modest cuts—a catch-22 for House leadership.
The budget resolution instructs the House Energy and Commerce Committee to cut $880 billion in spending over a decade, an amount that critics suspect will result in reductions to Medicaid.
The issue is Democrats’ main rallying point against the proposal, with several arguing that Republicans are planning to “gut Medicaid.”
Johnson has said there will be no substantive cuts, but will only target waste, fraud, and abuse in the program. Trump has also expressed clear opposition to making any substantive cuts to the entitlement program.
At least 12 Republicans have come out against Medicaid cuts.
The budget resolution also calls for the House to increase the nation’s borrowing limit by $4 trillion and the Senate by $5 trillion.
The Senate figure has come under fire from conservatives in the House, such as members of the Freedom Caucus. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) initially told The Epoch Times that the budget resolution was “DEAD ON ARRIVAL” in the House, though he eventually voted for it.
Ultimately, the issue could still divide the two chambers, as the Senate seeks a greater debt limit bump than many House conservatives can stomach in the final package.
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