President Trump on Friday signed a massive spending and tax bill that the White House has dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” to implement much of his domestic policy agenda.
The bill passed Thursday after Republican leaders in the House of Representatives convinced holdouts in their own party to get in line behind the controversial legislation.
“I can say very proudly that our country is more proud right now than it has been in many, many years,” Trump said during a military family picnic for the Fourth of July. “The last two weeks, there’s never been anything like it, as far as winning, winning, winning.”
The legislative effort fulfills key campaign pledges that Trump made during his reelection bid — including making hefty tax cuts passed during his first term permanent. But it violates a key promise too: Trump promised repeatedly during the campaign not to touch Medicaid benefits, the joint federal and state program that provides health care for more than 70 million low-income, elderly and disabled Americans.
House Republicans passed the bill by a vote of 218 to 214, nearly entirely along party lines. All 212 Democrats voted in unison against the bill, and they were joined by two Republicans, Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania. Leaders were forced to work all night to win the votes necessary to pass the bill and meet Trump’s demand to sign the bill by July 4.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., pledged in a speech on the House floor on Thursday that the bill would make the U.S. “stronger, safer and more prosperous than ever before.”
“Today we are laying a key cornerstone of America’s new golden age,” he said. Johnson on Friday presented Trump with the gavel used on the bill during its passage.
The sprawling GOP bill — clocking in at nearly 1,000 pages — represents a dramatic realignment of the federal government’s role in American life, shifting resources from the social safety net and investments in clean energy, and reorienting them to finance trillions of dollars in new spending on tax cuts, immigration enforcement and national defense.
Trump was heavily involved in selling the bill to skeptical lawmakers. Trump also weighed in repeatedly on social media, demanding that lawmakers finish the job.
“Largest Tax Cuts in History and a Booming Economy vs. Biggest Tax Increase in History, and a Failed Economy. What are the Republicans waiting for??? What are you trying to prove??? MAGA IS NOT HAPPY, AND IT’S COSTING YOU VOTES!!!” Trump wrote just after midnight on Thursday.
Republicans say they are targeting waste, fraud and abuse in the program, and the bill makes significant changes to work requirements and ways the program is funded. The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan group of professional staffers who provide information and analysis to support the legislative process, estimates that the cuts could result in nearly 12 million people losing health coverage.
Democrats rallied against the bill but could not block or change it
Democrats warned throughout the day and night that the legislation contains major cuts to the social safety net, including food aid and insurance coverage for millions of Americans.
Before the vote, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., spoke on the House floor for 8 hours and 44 minutes in a wide-ranging speech, railing against Republicans and the impact of the bill.
The speech broke the record for the longest leadership speech in the history of the House of Representatives. The previous record, of 8 hours, 32 minutes, was set by then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in 2021.
During the speech, Jeffries read letters from people insured through Medicaid, including many who said they live in congressional districts represented by Republicans. Jeffries called the bill “an immoral document.”
“Everybody should vote no against it because of how it attacks children and seniors and everyday Americans. And people with disabilities,” Jeffries said. “That is why I stand here on the floor of the House of Representative with my colleagues in the House Democratic caucus to stand up and push back against it with everything we have.”
Trump sought to respond to Democratic attacks against the legislation during his speech on Friday during the Fourth of July celebrations at the White House.
“I just want you to know, if you see anything negative put out by Democrats, it’s all a con job,” he said, adding that it was the “most popular bill ever signed.”
The package also comes with a hefty price tag. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill will increase the deficit — how much money the government spends over the amount it brings in — by $3.4 trillion over 10 years.
These issues were the focus of significant debate during both Senate and House deliberations over the bill. The House passed an initial version in late May, although it changed in the Senate as lawmakers incorporated additional cuts to Medicaid and a higher increase to the debt limit.
