Republican Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus (HFC), told former White House adviser Steve Bannon Monday that President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda will not proceed unless there are major spending cuts.
Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” cleared a crucial hurdle Sunday night as House GOP leadership seeks to send the sweeping tax and spending package to the Senate by the end of the week. But Harris warned on “Bannon’s War Room” Friday’s U.S. credit downgrade from Moody’s signals the need for deeper cuts before the legislation can move forward.
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“The bottom line is if we don’t get significant spending reduction in line to offset Moody’s downgrade last week, this bill is not going anywhere this week,” Harris told Bannon. “The bottom line is that the ground has changed last week. That Moody’s downgrade, we were warning about it in the Freedom Caucus for really years, that we have to get our debt and deficit in order. They’re whistling past the graveyard. It’s like that never happened.”
“But it did happen. And we have to get back to pre-COVID spending levels wherever we can. We certainly can with Medicaid because the fraud, waste and abuse, the gaming of the system, the giving benefits to two and a half million illegal immigrants, I mean, this is ridiculous,” he continued. “It has to stop. We have a long way to go. We don’t get there by Wednesday. And the word is they want to have this vote Wednesday. There’s just no way it’s passing on Wednesday.”
The House Budget Committee advanced Trump’s budget reconciliation package in a vote of 17 to 16, with four HFC members — Chip Roy of Texas, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma and Andrew Clyde of Georgia — voting “present.” The same four conservative lawmakers originally tanked the bill during a previous Friday vote, but later enabled it to proceed, citing “progress” enhancing the fiscal responsibility of the bill.
However, they also asserted that further modifications were necessary for them to ultimately back the bill.
“As written, the bill continues increased deficits in the near term with possible savings years down the road that may never materialize,” the HFC posted on X Sunday after the vote. “We are determined and committed to working through the remaining obstacles within this bill, and we stand with our colleagues Reps. Roy, Brecheen, Clyde and Norman in the Budget Committee who voted present to signal the need for further negotiations.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson made a surprise appearance at the budget panel vote to keep talking with holdouts before the vote commenced. He told reporters that he wanted to send the reconciliation package to the Senate by Thursday.
The bill is now slated to be considered by the House Rules Committee in a vote set for Wednesday at 1:00 a.m. before advancing to a House-wide vote.
“We have several more [details] to take care of, but I’m looking forward to very thoughtful discussions, very productive discussions over the next few days, and I’m absolutely convinced we’re going to get this in final form and pass it in accordance with our original deadline, and that was to do it before Memorial Day,” Johnson told reporters.
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