President Donald Trump will get his wish this Independence Day. He will sign his signature “Big, Beautiful Bill” into law on Friday.
House Republicans passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) by a 218-214 vote Thursday afternoon, with zero support from Democrats and only two Republicans — Kentucky’s Thomas Massie and Pennsylvania’s Brian Fitzpatrick — voting against it.
Massie’s unwavering opposition to the reconciliation bill has put him the president’s crosshairs, who aims to have the rogue Congressman ousted in next year’s primary.
Republicans could afford only three defections. While some Republicans, including Chip Roy of Texas, had voiced disapproval and hinted they might vote against the bill, Trump and House leaders ultimately wrangled enough votes to get the measure over the finish line without any major hiccups.
Media reports have said that Trump decided to use more honey than vinegar to get the necessary votes. He made pleasant phone calls, invited lawmakers to play golf, and even brought them over to the Oval Office to persuade them and send them on their way with signed souvenirs.
The Trump administration, House leadership, and MAGA media advocates successfully dressed up the bill by focusing on three major agenda items that Republicans overwhelmingly support. The OBBBA makes the 2017 Trump tax cuts permanent, it allocates more than $100 billion to immigration enforcement and deportations, and it doles out more than $100 billion to military spending, which includes seed money for a Golden Dome missile defense system.
Before passing, House minority leader, Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, held up the vote with an eight-hour speech that started at 4:53 a.m. and went until 1:37 p.m. During his marathon tirade, he mocked the bill’s Trumpian name. “Republicans are trying to jam this one, big, ugly bill down the throats of the American people,” he said to a mostly empty House chamber.
The bill’s moniker has also received flak from Republicans. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, during his much shorter speech earlier this week, referred to it as the “Big, Not So Beautiful Bill.” He voted against it over its exorbitant sticker price. Vice President J.D. Vance had to make a rare appearance in the Senate chamber to cast the tie-breaking vote.
Jeffries echoed the main frustration among Democrats, mainly the bill’s tightening requirements for recipients of various welfare benefits, especially Medicaid. The OBBBA demands that able-bodied Medicaid recipients work at least 80 hours a week. This is projected to winnow down the number of recipients by millions. Democrats see this as a drawback.
The OBBBA lost a few pages and got more expensive in the Senate before it came back to the House on Tuesday. House leaders had to confront interparty grumblings that the bill was worse than when it initially passed the lower chamber by the skin of its teeth on a 215-214-1 vote.
The bill is projected to add trillions of dollars to the debt and more than $200 billion to the deficit next year. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released on June 27 an updated cost estimate following Senate changes that said the OBBBA would likely add between $3.5 and $4.2 trillion to the national debt in just under a decade. That projection was about $1 trillion more than its initial House version.
But the White House disagrees with this projection. Its main supporting premise is that the bill’s policies will unleash such economic growth that it will outpace debt. Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought has claimed the bill yields $1.6 trillion in mandatory savings. The White House released an analysis by the Council of Economic Advisors in June. The White House-endorsed analysis says the OBBBA will accomplish the following:
An accurate budget score for the OBBB, inclusive of economic growth unleashed by President Trump’s policies, is deficit reduction of $755 billion relative to the CBO’s tax hike baseline and deficit reduction of $4.5 trillion relative to the current policy baseline.
Debt-to-GDP falls to 94% by 2034 under the Trump plan — compared to 117% under Biden’s failed path.
Total deficit in 2034 is cut nearly in half — 3.2% of GDP under Trump vs. 6.2% under current law — saving the country $1.1 trillion in that year alone.
Primary deficits flip to surpluses by 2034 under President Trump’s economic agenda with the OBBB.
The OBBBA makes the 2017 Trump Tax Cuts permanent. It also funds, to the tune of hundreds of billions, completion of the border wall, more migrant detention centers, the hiring of more Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, a new stealth bomber, updated nuclear weapons systems, replenishment of ammunition stockpiles, and a slew of air, water, and underwater gadgets the military will put to use.
One of the most vocal opponents of the bill has been tech tycoon and former unofficial head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk. The richest man in the world has railed against it off and on since his breakup with the president back in May. After returning to the private sector, Musk began launching assaults at the bill over the debt it will add. Musk had incurred insults, threats, and major business losses for his efforts to rein in the national debt. He sees runway spending as an existential threat to the nation.
After the bill passed back to the House this week, Musk even implied that he’d help launch a third party “if this insane bill passes.” As of late Thursday afternoon, Musk’s main broadcast channel, his X account, has been silent in regard to the Big, Beautiful Bill.