WASHINGTON — House Republicans worked through the night Thursday to pass the multi-trillion-dollar tax-breaks package, with Speaker Mike Johnson defying the skeptics and unifying his ranks to muscle through President Donald Trump’s top legislative priority. And, to the surprise of virtually nobody, local solons Rep. Tom McClintock (R-El Dorado Springs) and Rep. Adam Gray (D-Merced) were on opposite sides of the issue.
With last-minute concessions and stark warnings from Trump, the Republican holdouts largely dropped their opposition to salvage the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that is central to Trump’s agenda. The House launched debate before midnight and by dawn the vote was called, 215-214, with Democrats staunchly opposed. It next goes to the Senate, with long negotiations ahead.
“If this bill fails, an average family’s taxes will rise 22 percent next year — about $1,700 a year — the biggest tax increase in American history,” McClintock said from the House floor early Thursday. “But if it succeeds, working families will be able to keep more of their own earnings. We’ll be able to complete the border wall and protect our communities from the violent cartels the Democrats allowed into our country. We’ll relieve pressure on Medicaid by requiring able-bodied adults to look for work. And, we can free up America’s vast energy resources.”
Gray disagreed with his colleague across the aisle.
“The Valley sent me to Washington to work on serious, bipartisan legislation that would address the issues we care about: lowering costs, supporting our farmers and producers, securing water access, and improving our education and health care opportunities,” Gray said. “This bill would do none of that. It cuts vital assistance to American families in favor of handouts for special interests and the ultrawealthy. I voted no.”
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the top 0.6 percent of Americans — the 1.2 million who earn more than $1 million annually — would receive more tax cuts than the 127 million Americans with incomes below $100,000.
Additionally, the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office said the bill would add $3.8 trillion to the nation’s $36 trillion national debt, would cut Medicaid by almost $700 billion, and cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by $276 billion.
All told, the CBO estimates 8.6 million fewer people would have health care coverage and 3 million less people a month would have SNAP food stamps benefits with the proposed changes.
“The reconciliation bill was a completely partisan exercise that would rip away health care and food assistance from Valley families,” said Gray. “Over 450,000 people in my congressional district rely on Medicaid for their health care, and over 47,000 families depend on SNAP assistance to put food on the table.
“I don’t know anyone — Republican or Democrat — in our community who believes that people are seeing the doctor too often or that kids are eating too much food. I could not vote to cut these programs.”
The outcome caps an intense time on Capitol Hill, with days of private negotiations and public committee hearings, many happening back-to-back, around-the-clock. Republicans insisted their sprawling 1,000-page-plus package was what voters sent them to Congress — and Trump to the White House — to accomplish. They believe it will be “rocket fuel,” as one put it during debate, for the uneasy U.S. economy.
Trump himself demanded action, visiting House Republicans at Tuesday’s conference meeting and hosting GOP leaders and the holdouts for a lengthy session Wednesday at the White House. Before the vote, the administration warned that failure “would be the ultimate betrayal.”
The Senate hopes to wrap up its version by the Fourth of July holiday.
“Senate Majority Leader (John) Thune has said that the Senate will edit and change the content of the House’s bill,” said Gray. “It’s my hope that the Senate will work in a bipartisan manner to both protect programs on which Valley families depend, and bring the federal spending back down to a responsible level.”
Central to the package is the GOP’s commitment to extending some $4.5 trillion in tax breaks they engineered during Trump’s first term in 2017, while temporarily adding new ones he campaigned on during his 2024 campaign, including no taxes on tips, overtime pay, car loan interest, and others.
To make up for some of the lost tax revenue, the Republicans focused on changes to Medicaid and the food stamps program, largely by imposing work requirements on many of those receiving benefits. There’s also a massive rollback of green energy tax breaks from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act.
“By this time next year, Americans could be enjoying one of the most explosive periods of growth in our history and all that means,” McClintock boasted. “Secure borders, safer communities, lower taxes, abundant energy, more and better jobs, a higher standard of living and a better quality of life — a big, beautiful future for all Americans.”
Two Republicans voted against the package — Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a deficit watcher who had been publicly criticized by Trump, and Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland.
“This bill is a debt bomb ticking,” Massie warned.
The final analysis of the overall package’s costs and economic impacts are still being assessed.
