Speaker Mike Johnson is declaring “victory” after House Republicans pushed President Donald Trump’s massive tax cuts bill through committee in a late Sunday night vote, in what one Democrat called a “bonanza for billionaires.” The bill, 1116 pages as of Wednesday, guts Medicaid, stripping health care from millions. It plows through a wishlist of hard-core GOP priorities, including opening up public lands to aggressive logging, drilling, and mining. It increases border funding, shuts down the U.S. Department of Education, and forces Congress to re-vote on major federal legislation every five years.
Four House Republican hardliners agreed to not block what President Trump is calling his “big, beautiful bill,” allowing it to pass the Budget Committee after GOP leadership agreed to “speed up” the cuts to Medicaid, according to Bloomberg News.
“Representative Chip Roy of Texas, one of the four hardliners, said party leaders agreed to move up Medicaid work requirements expected to kick millions of beneficiaries off the health coverage program and more quickly phase out clean energy tax breaks,” Bloomberg reported. “But Roy still expressed dissatisfaction, saying the measure ‘does not yet meet the moment.’ Roy and the House Freedom Caucus said in posts on X they are hoping to win additional cuts before the bill comes up for a vote on the House floor.”
READ MORE: ‘Lied Through His Teeth’: Senator Warns RFK Jr. Undermining Vaccine Will ‘Kill’ Kids
Speaker Johnson late Sunday night told reporters (video below) that Republicans are going to “protect Medicaid”—by enacting stronger work requirements that are expected to kick more than eight million Americans (some say more than ten million) off the health care program.
CNBC reported on Wednesday that “9.7 million to 14.4 million people would be at risk for losing Medicaid coverage in 2034 if they are unable to show they meet the work requirements, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.”
Saying he would “count … as a big win tonight” the passage of the bill, Johnson noted that “what our party stands for” is “to cut spending.”
“So this this will be a victory out of the committee tonight. Everybody will will make a vote that allows it to proceed, and that was my big request tonight,” Johnson said, telling reporters that “it’s the desire of every Republican, always has been to make work requirements real, and actionable as soon as possible.”
“The government is too large, it does too many things, and it does very little well,” Johnson claimed.
CNN’s Haley Talbot reported that Speaker Johnson said that the bill will hit the Rules Committee “Tuesday or Wednesday, and that Johnson hopes they can hold the floor vote by Thursday, “then recess.”
The Hill called Sunday’s vote an “unusual late-night vote,” but Democrats offered more descriptive language.
READ MORE: ‘Deeply Fascist’: Massive Banner of Trump on Government Building Sparks ‘North Korea’ Vibes
“This bill that is being rammed through the Budget Committee in the dead of night on a weekend is a betrayal to the American people. It is just another bonanza for Billionaires. Don’t they have enough yet?” asked U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH).
“They are voting to reduce food to the hungry, by cutting back $300 Billion in SNAP funding for those struggling just to get by. Our nation is the richest nation on Earth. Surely we can and must do better than this cruel, damaging and harmful legislation,” Congresswoman Kaptur added. “When a handful of top billionaires in our nation hold half the wealth of our nation, that is too much to too few. The Billionaire class owns as much as the 160 million American and families in the bottom half of our population in the middle-class and working-class.”
“As the late President John F. Kennedy said,” she concluded, “‘if a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.’”
Watch the video below or at this link.
Speaker Johnson says the bill will hit rules Cmte Tuesday or Wednesday
Johnson hopes they can hold the floor vote by THURSDAY
then recess pic.twitter.com/6PXHiAAxBI
— haley talbot (@haleytalbotcnn) May 19, 2025
READ MORE: ‘Significant Damage’: Walmart’s ‘Magnitude’ Warning to Consumers Spurs Trump Tariff Critics
Image via Shutterstock