Republican votes stall ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ in House, Trump calls it ‘ridiculous’

US President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill that supported many of his top goals including cutting taxes, changing Medicaid, boosting border spending, was stalled in the House on Thursday.

The speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, now needs to convince his own party members who had voted against the Bill, to let it pass.

As reported by Time, at least five Republicans joined the Democrats in voting against the Bill, and eight Republicans are still to vote later in the day (IST).

Reacting to the roadblock, the US president lashed out, “FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE. RIDICULOUS!!!” on his Truth Social account.

The Bill can still be passed with the speaker having the authority to call for a re-voting.

On Wednesday, the GOP-led Senate passed ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’, a major stride toward Trump’s goal of getting the legislation to his desk and signed by this week’s end. 

The sweeping bill passed narrowly by 51 to 50, with US Vice President J D Vance casting the deciding ballot. Three Republicans were the only GOP lawmakers to vote ‘no’– senators Susan Collins, Thom Tillis and Rand Paul.

The legislation is considered the GOP’s biggest legislative win in the lead-up to next year's midterms, in which the party could lose its slim majority in the House, Xinhua news agency reported.

The bill extends Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, slashes taxes on tips and provides new spending for the military and border security.

“Today was a historic day ... and we’re very excited to be a part of something that is going to make America stronger, safer and more prosperous,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said after the bill passed the Senate.

But there remained one more major hurdle ahead, as the bill needs to be passed in the House of Representatives.

Democrats have been vehemently opposed to the mega-bill, which funds an agenda to which Democrats stand in stark contrast.

Democrats have blasted the tax cuts in the bill as reductions that benefit the wealthy. Republicans maintain that the cuts will help the middle class.

The bill has angered Democrats for what the party says are cuts to essential programmes such as Medicaid – health care coverage for low-income people – as well as to food stamps.

Democrats also fret the bill will add trillions of US dollars to the surging national debt.

Even Elon Musk, Trump’s close ally during his electoral campaign, has been vocally against the Bill, going out on an all-out verbal war with the president over it.

An analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said the changes Trump made in the Senate version of the bill would add trillions of dollars to the already significant national debt, and that the bill would create considerable losses in health care coverage.

The CBO has predicted that the bill would add $2.4 trillion to the national debt in the next 10 years, while also pushing up the deficit by around $3.3 trillion between 2025 and 2034.

The CBO’s analysis also forecast that the bill would cause 11.8 million more Americans to lose their insurance by 2034, which, as experts have said, will surely create hurdles for the bill’s passage in the House before Trump’s July 4 deadline.

(with inputs from syndicated feed)