House Republicans unveiled their blueprint for enacting much of President Donald Trump’s agenda, including steep spending cuts, an extension of expiring tax cuts, an increase in the federal debt limit and new border, defense and energy measures. Yet even as House GOP leaders look to push ahead with their budget plan, they still face conservative demands for additional spending cuts and lingering intraparty divisions over whether to employ a one-bill strategy or split their priorities into two bills. Senate Republicans, meanwhile, are pressing ahead with their own approach, which involves two bills.
The 45-page proposal released by the House Budget Committee on Wednesday says that the House Ways and Means Committee can pursue tax cuts that increase the deficit by as much as $4.5 trillion over 10 years and would increase the nation’s $36.1 trillion borrowing limit by $4 trillion. It also directs other House committees to slash $1.5 trillion in spending while allowing for $300 billion in increased spending on the military, border security and immigration enforcement. Most of the proposed savings, a minimum of $880 billion, would come from the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid.
The plan also sets an overall goal of cutting $2 trillion over 10 years. It says that if the total combined deficit reduction falls below that target, the $4.5 trillion in room given to the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee “should be reduced by a commensurate amount to offset the difference.”
“This budget resolution is a key step to start the process in delivering President Trump’s America First agenda,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement. “With nearly every House Republican directly engaged in this deliberative process, this resolution reflects our collective commitment to enacting the President's full agenda—not just a part of it. There will be ongoing debates and discussions in the coming weeks, and we remain focused on working through the process to deliver on our promises made to the American people. There’s still much work to be done, but we are starting on the right path.”
Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith told reporters that the $4.5 trillion in room for tax cuts won’t allow Republicans to do everything Trump wants, but he called it “a good first step.”
House leaders plan to mark up their budget resolution on Thursday, even as the Senate began marking up its own two-step plan on Wednesday and will continue tomorrow. The Senate resolution would provide $175 billion for border security and $150 billion extra in defense spending but leave aside the tax elements for later.
Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham said the Senate is moving ahead because there’s an urgent need for border funding. “To my colleagues in the House, I hope you can pass one big, beautiful bill meeting the priorities of President Trump and what we’ve been promising to do as a party, but we’ve got to move on this issue,” he said in opening remarks at the Senate budget panel’s session today, adding, “I hope you will consider what we do if you cannot produce the one big, beautiful bill quickly.”
House hardliners threaten to revolt: There are signs that the House may struggle to produce that one bill. Politico reports that some House Freedom Caucus members panned the House budget resolution and are pushing for at least $500 billion more in spending cuts and for a guarantee that work requirements will be included for Medicaid and other programs.
“Critically, two of those skeptical conservatives sit on the panel and could tank it in committee if they side with Democrats and vote against advancing the budget resolution — and Reps. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Chip Roy (R-Texas) say they're not on board yet,” Politico’s Meredith Lee Hill reports.
Yet as Republicans continue to argue over the proper balance of spending reductions and tax cuts, with the aim of creating a package that can clear both the House and Senate, Johnson told reporters Wednesday evening that he’s not changing the resolution ahead of the planned committee vote.
The GOP divide over strategy extends to the executive branch. As Politico reports: “Vice President JD Vance, White House policy chief Stephen Miller and budget chief Russ Vought are among those in the Trump administration pushing for a two-bill approach on reconciliation, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is pushing for one, people familiar with their thinking, granted anonymity to share it, said Wednesday.”
Warnings of Medicaid cuts and other pain: Democrats, meanwhile, are slamming the House plan, saying that it would hurt average Americans in order to provide tax cuts for the wealthy.
“Here's the simplest way to understand the Republican budget bill: 11% average annual cut to Medicaid. $250,000 average annual tax break for the richest 0.1%,” Michael Linden, a former Biden administration budget official, posted on X.
Rep. Brendan Boyle, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said in a statement that the Republican plan betrays the middle class: “Their proposal slashes critical programs that millions of hardworking Americans rely on, all while adding trillions of dollars to the deficit to bankroll massive giveaways for giant corporations and billionaires like Elon Musk.”
Boyle and budget watchers also decried what they called gimmicks and fantastical growth projections Republicans used to trim the overall cost of their proposal. For example, the GOP resolution assumes a higher 2.5% economic growth rate over the next decade to generate $2.6 trillion in additional revenues. “This lazy gimmick is a staple of budget proposals trying to show fake savings,” budget expert Jessica Riedl wrote on X. And the resolution includes $1.8 trillion in undefined future savings from discretionary spending. “This budget will hike deficits (when stripped of gimmicks),” Riedl concluded. “Tax cuts will eventually pass but the spending savings face major barriers.”
Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which advocates for deficit reduction, said Republicans should find more savings or shrink their tax cuts and new spending. “This reconciliation plan would damage the fiscal health of the country and present risks we should not be willing to take,” she said in a statement.
The bottom line: Budget hawks are warning that the blueprint, as released, would add trillions more to the debt. As Johnson indicated, Republicans still have a lot more work to do if they want to overcome the divide between those in the party who want more tax cuts and those who want to slash more spending.