Washington, (Reuters) .- Republicans in the House of Representatives faced difficulties on Wednesday to approve the huge tax cut and expense draft of President Donald Trump, because a group of conservative legislators refused to support him for concerns about their cost.
While the legislators entered and left meetings behind closed doors, the president of the Chamber, Mike Johnson, said he was trying to convince the dissatisfied to support Trump’s flagship project.
“We are addressing everyone’s concerns and trying to get the necessary votes. I feel very optimistic with the progress we have achieved,” he told the press.
With a tight majority of 220 against 212, Johnson cannot afford more than three defections within his party. However, the most conservative wing skeptics claimed to have enough votes to block the proposal.
“He knows that my vote is ‘No’. He knows that I don’t think there are enough votes to approve this proposal as he is,” republican representative Andy Harris, from Maryland, leader of the Freedom Caucus group, told reporters.
Trump, who presses the Congress to send him the bill before the July 4 holiday for Independence Day, met some of the dissidents in the White House. But, before an uncertain result, Republican leaders delayed a procedural vote for hours while seeking to ensure more support.
The representative Steve Scalise, of Louisiana and second in command among the Republicans of the Chamber, indicated that they were waiting for legislators who had been delayed due to storms. “We need their votes, and they will be here shortly,” he told reporters.
Republicans in Congress have had difficulty maintaining unity in recent years, although it is also true that they have not challenged Trump since his return to the White House in January.
Any change that the camera would require would require a new vote in the Senate, which would virtually make it impossible to comply with the term of July 4.
Soser context:
Senate approves Trump’s tax and expenses cuts law; Go to the lower voting house
The legislation includes most of Trump’s internal priorities, from fiscal cuts to strict immigration control measures.
The Senate approved the project on Tuesday by the narrowest possible margin, after an intense debate about its high cost and cuts for 900 million dollars to the Medicaid program, which provides medical attention to low -income people. Non -partisan analysts estimate that the proposal would increase EU debt by 3.4 billion dollars during the next decade.
In the camera there are also similar divisions. In May, an earlier version of the project was approved with a lower cost. Stronger objections come from radical conservatives, annoying because public expenses are not reduced sufficiently.
“What the Senate did was inconceivable,” said Republican representative Ralph Norman, from South Carolina, one of the two conservatives who voted against the project during a night audience in committee.
Tax cuts and immigration measures
The draft law would extend Trump’s tax cuts in 2017, reduce social health and food programs, finance the former president’s migratory offensive and eliminate many incentives for clean energy. It also includes an increase of 5 billion dollars in the national debt roof, an issue that Congress must address in the coming months to avoid a catastrophic breach over the 36.2 billion dollars that the country already owes.
The Democrats are united in their opposition to the project, arguing that their tax cuts disproportionately benefit the richest, while essential services are eliminated for the middle and low classes. The Congress Budget Office (CBO), a non -partisan entity, estimated that almost 12 million people could lose their medical insurance as a result of the project.
“This project is catastrophic. It is not a public policy, it is a punishment,” said Democratic Representative Jim McGovern during the debate in the Plenary of the Chamber.
Medicaid cuts have also generated concern among some Republicans, which led the Senate to assign more funds for rural hospitals.
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