House Passes Trump's Budget Bill

After a long day of arm-twisting and internal party clashes, House Republicans on Tuesday narrowly passed their plan to advance President Donald Trump's legislative agenda.

The GOP plan was passed by a vote of 217-215, after House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had to convince several Republican holdouts including Reps. Victoria Spartz of Indiana, Tim Burchett of Tennessee and Warren Davidson of Ohio to come on board with the proposal.

After the House plan passed on Tuesday night, Trump congratulated Johnson.

"Big First Step Win for Speaker Mike Johnson, and AMERICA. Now let’s start to BALANCE THE BUDGET. IT CAN BE DONE!!!" he wrote in a Truth Social post on Wednesday morning.

Here's a rundown of what the proposal includes and who voted against it:

What is in the House's budget plan?

The House's plan would set up a massive reconciliation bill that would extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts and implement new ones at a cost of $4.5 trillion over the next decade.

It would also allocate $300 billion for spending on defense and border security, raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion over two years, and add almost $3 trillion to the federal deficit over 10 years.

The budget blueprint would also direct multiple committees to cut billions of dollars, including $880 billion in cuts spearheaded by the Energy and Commerce Committee. Because Trump has ruled out cuts to Medicare and Social Security, budget experts say that may necessitate cuts to Medicaid, which is under the committee's jurisdiction.

Who voted against the plan?

All Democrats and one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., voted against the budget plan.

Massie argued that the plan "doesn't cut spending much" and that it will only add to the U.S. debt. "We have no plan whatsoever to balance the budget other than growth. But what they're proposing is to make the deficit worse," he said on Tuesday.

House Democrats have argued that the plan would have negative impacts on middle-class and low-income families.

"Tonight, House Republicans passed a budget which steals taxpayer dollars from Medicaid to give tax breaks to their billionaire donors and big corporations. Their cruel budget raises costs for those already struggling to make ends meet ‒ but Republicans voted for it with glee," former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

What is the difference between Medicare and Medicaid?

The two government health programs were signed into law 60 years ago by former President Lyndon B. Johnson, each serving distinct groups.

Medicare covers those 65 and older, as well as some younger than 65 with certain disabilities, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The program is run by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the federal agency sets the requirements for eligibility.

Medicaid is for low-income and disabled Americans. The program is a joint effort between the federal government and individual states. While there are certain standards set at the national level, other eligibility and benefits can vary from state to state.

Together, both programs serve about 25% of the country’s population, according to an HHS spokesperson.

Is Medicaid being cut?

The latest budget resolution passed by the House Tuesday night does not explicitly lay out cuts to Medicaid or Medicare.

What it does is set spending levels for different congressional committees, including the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which oversees Medicaid.

The resolution calls for $2 trillion worth of federal spending cuts, $880 billion of those coming from the Energy and Commerce Committee specifically. Democrats and moderates have raised concerns that these cuts would end up slashing Medicaid coverage.

But House Republican leadership has said there will not be cuts to the program. Instead, they say they plan to save by targeting “fraud, waste and abuse” rather than the health services.

“The word Medicaid is not even in this bill. This bill doesn’t even mention the word Medicaid a single time,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana said in a press conference Tuesday.

What has Trump said about the plan?

Trump, who has called for his agenda to be passed in "one, big beautiful bill," endorsed the House plan last week. He said in a Truth Social post that the "House Resolution implements my FULL America First Agenda, EVERYTHING, not just parts of it!”

The Senate had been working to pass Trump's agenda into two separate pieces. The upper chamber held a marathon session last week where they passed their own version of Trump's agenda in a border security and defense package.

Trump then told reporters on Tuesday that he would look at both proposals and decide which one he prefers.

"So the House has a bill and the Senate has a bill, and I'm looking at them both, and I'll make decisions," he said. "I know the Senate is doing very well and the House is doing very well. But each one of them has things that I like. So we'll see if we can come together."