House Speaker Mike Johnson tries to push Trump’s ‘big’ agenda forward, but GOP votes are in jeopardy

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson will try against the odds to muscle a Republican budget blueprint to passage this week, a step toward delivering President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” with $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and $2 trillion in spending cuts over stiff opposition from Democrats — and even some Republicans. “We all know that trickle-down economics,” he said about the 2017 tax breaks that flowed mainly to the wealthy, “don’t work.” Trump has signaled a preference for the “big” bill but also appears to enjoy a competition between the House and the Senate, lawmakers said, as he pits the Republicans against each other to see which version will emerge on a path toward approval. “The House’s ‘one big beautiful bill’ delivers on the entirety of President Trump’s policy agenda,” they wrote in a letter obtained by The Associated Press. “We must meet this historic moment with the bold action it requires.” Rep. Jodey Arrington, the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee, told reporters he recognizes the tension between Republicans who want more cuts and those from politically competitive districts who “have a higher level of sensitivity to some of the spending reforms.” Arrington said with economic growth assumptions, from 1.8% as projected by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to 2.6% as projected by House Republicans, the package would generate about $2.6 trillion in savings over 10 years and would ensure the plan helps reduce the deficit.