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Donald Trump worked to win over Republican critics on Wednesday, in a final push by the US president to get his flagship tax and spending bill through Congress by a self-imposed July 4 deadline.
Trump’s schedule was cleared for the day, allowing him to meet privately with Republican rebels from the House of Representatives who have threatened to torpedo his “big, beautiful bill” at the eleventh hour.
Several House Republicans were seen entering the West Wing of the White House, including conservative and centrist lawmakers.
A group of conservatives including Tennessee’s Tim Burchett, emerged from what the congressman described as a “very productive” two-hour meeting with the president and vice-president JD Vance on Wednesday afternoon.
“The president was wonderful, as always,” Burchett said in a video posted to his social media accounts. “We will hopefully get this worked out and do some great things for this country.”
But as the day dragged on, it became unclear whether Republican lawmakers would be able to strike a deal and meet the president’s deadline.
The legislation stalled on the House floor on Wednesday afternoon as Speaker of the House Mike Johnson struggled to drum up enough support for a procedural vote that would clear the way for a formal debate on the bill.
The “big, beautiful bill” extends vast tax cuts from Trump’s first administration, paid for in part by steep cuts to Medicaid, the public health insurance scheme for low-income and disabled Americans, and other social welfare programmes.
The bill would also roll back Joe Biden-era tax credits for clean energy, while scaling up investment in the military and border protection.
The Senate on Tuesday narrowly passed a version of the sweeping legislation after three Senate Republicans sided with Democrats against the bill, forcing Vance to cast a tiebreaking vote.
That sent the legislation back to the House, which must vote through the bill before Trump signs it into law. The president and his allies want the bill to become law by Friday’s independence day holiday.
An earlier version of the legislation passed the House by a single vote in May. But a small group of House Republicans have now taken issue with the Senate’s version — and threatened to vote it down.
“The Senate bill moved way far away from the House bill,” Andy Harris, the Maryland Republican who chairs the influential House Freedom Caucus, told CNBC on Wednesday morning. “We should take the time to get this right.”
Fiscally conservative lawmakers, including many Freedom Caucus members, object to the cost of the legislation, which the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says will add $3.4tn to the deficit over the next decade. The group on Wednesday circulated a three-page memo detailing what it described as “failures” of the Senate bill.
More moderate members have argued that the cuts to Medicaid, which would strip an estimated 12mn people of their health insurance, are too steep.
The White House has dismissed the CBO’s projections and argued that the bill would more than pay for itself in the long term by generating stronger economic growth.
“THE ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL DEAL IS ALL ABOUT GROWTH,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday morning. “IF PASSED, AMERICA WILL HAVE AN ECONOMIC RENAISSANCE LIKE NEVER BEFORE.”
Johnson, who needs to appease his party’s factions, insisted late on Tuesday that the chamber would be able to find common ground and pass the bill by the end of the week.
“We are at the one-yard line,” Johnson told Fox News, in a reference to American football. “We are going to run it right up the middle and score for the American people. Everyone is going to benefit from this bill.”
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