House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) suggested the Republican party is falling apart amid the party’s growing divisions surrounding President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill.”
When former presidential advisor Elon Musk accused the sweeping tax cuts legislation of irresponsibly raising the country’s deficit and expanding national debt earlier this month, a group of rebellious fiscal hawks echoed his concerns as they publicly spoke out against the “disgusting abomination.” Although small in number, Republicans like Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) could hold the power to derail the bill in the Senate, where Trump can afford to lose only a handful of votes.
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Jeffries weighed in on the deepening fractures within the Republican Party over the “big beautiful bill” during a CBS interview set to be released in full on Thursday.
“What we see right now is a Republican civil war,” Jeffries said. “Elon Musk is attacking the GOP tax scam, this reckless budget that’s going to hurt everyday Americans. House Republicans are attacking Senate Republicans, Senate Republicans are attacking House Republicans.”
The House passed the legislation last month after House Majority Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wrangled various factions of his conference together to support the bill. After struggling to corral members, the speaker could face more difficulties when the Senate sends the legislation back to the House for final approval because Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) recently said she will not back the bill as long as it contains a controversial artificial intelligence provision. The congresswoman said Tuesday she did not know about the provision when she initially voted for the bill.
Johnson has condemned criticism of the legislation.
“We don’t have time for a brand new bill,” Johnson told reporters. “And I want Elon and all my friends to recognize the complexity of what we’ve accomplished here.”
“You can’t go back to the drawing board — and we shouldn’t. We have a great product to deliver here,” the speaker said, adding that he was “surprised” by Musk’s complaints.
On the Senate side, where lawmakers are debating the legislation before bringing it to the floor for a vote, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has likewise risen to Trump’s defense as he attempts to salve concerns the bill is fiscally irresponsible.
“So there’s just a lot of analysis around this bill that isn’t accurately reflecting what will happen when all these policies are put into place,” Thune said this week. “And by the way, it will be the biggest spending reduction in history. There’s just no question about that. It’s going to have huge savings in it, and we’re hoping to enhance that here in the Senate.”
Republicans’ chaos has lent Democrats more weight in their battle against the legislation, which they believe makes dangerous cuts to Medicaid and implements other harmful priorities.
“When you try to take away healthcare from more than 15 million Americans, that’s a disgusting abomination,” Jeffries said. “When you are endeavoring to rip food, literally, out of the mouths of children, veterans, and seniors with the largest cut to nutritional assistance in American history, that is a disgusting abomination. And it’s certainly a disgusting abomination, when all of this is being done to provide massive tax breaks to their billionaire donors, and they’re going to stick the American people with the bill and increase the debt by trillions of dollars.”
The Republican-led House passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act included changes to Medicaid work requirements that are scheduled to kick in by December 2026.
Democrats such as Jeffries have seized on the changes, characterizing them as steep cuts harmful to vulnerable populations reliant on federal support. Millions more people would be uninsured over the next decade if provisions that affect Medicaid and Obamacare health insurance plans are enacted under the Republican tax bill, they say, pointing to estimates released by the Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday.
Republicans say the changes are not cuts, but rather a push to encourage “able-bodied” adults without young children to work instead of being on welfare.
“Unfortunately, misinformation has clouded the bill’s intent, particularly when it comes to Medicaid,” Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA) wrote in a recent op-ed. “Let me set the record straight: This legislation does not cut Medicaid for those who truly need it. Instead, it strengthens the program for low-income families, seniors, and individuals with disabilities while rooting out waste and holding bad actors accountable.”
The bill implements new requirements for qualifying “able-bodied” adults to show that they’ve worked, volunteered, or attended an educational program for at least 80 hours per month in order to maintain Medicaid eligibility.
STEPHEN MILLER PUTS ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AT CENTER OF GOP DEBATE AROUND TRUMP’S ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’
“You’re telling me that you’re going to require the able-bodied, these young men, for example, to only work or volunteer in their community for 20 hours a week. And that’s too cumbersome for them?” Johnson said during a June 1 interview with NBC News’s Meet the Press.
“I’m not buying it. The American people are not buying it,” he continued