The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives will try to take its first step on Tuesday toward enacting President Donald Trump’s tax-cut and border agenda, giving Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., hours to corral wayward Republicans into supporting the effort.
Johnson appears to lack the near-unanimous support he needs from his 218-215 Republican majority to deliver on Trump’s $4.5 trillion tax-cut plan, which would also fund the deportation of migrants living in the U.S. illegally, tighten border security, energy deregulation, and military spending.
A handful of hardline Republicans have said they oppose a budget blueprint that seeks to cut $2 trillion of spending over 10 years to pay for the agenda, with apparent support from billionaire Elon Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency is targeting government workers and programs.
“If the Republican budget passes, the deficit gets worse, not better,” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., one of at least three Republicans who want deeper spending cuts, said on the social media platform X on Monday night.
“That sounds bad,” replied Musk, who owns X.
The U.S. federal government currently has more than $36 trillion in debt, and the House measure would clear it to take on another $4 trillion. Current funding for federal agencies runs out on March 14, and Congress will face another deadline later this year to raise the government’s self-imposed debt ceiling or risk triggering a catastrophic default.
Johnson also faces uncertainty among a large number of lawmakers who represent swing districts and large Hispanic constituencies, who are concerned that deep spending cuts could harm programs that provide food assistance, scholarship grants, and the Medicaid healthcare program for the poor.