After struggle, Johnson gets House budget resolution passed

Speaker Johnson (R-LA) has struggled for the last few weeks to pass Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill.”

At one point, Johnson was forced to pull the bill, but after some calls from Trump and speaking with dissenters, the bill finally passed the procedural vote 217-211.

When Johnson finally floored the legislation, it passed by a vote of 217-215, giving Trump and Johnson a big win in the House.

Tough Sledding

One of the big concerns was alleged cuts to the Medicaid program, with Rep. Van Drew (R-N.J.) stating, “The size of the cut concerns me because we do not want to affect disabled people, peoples in nursing homes, senior citizens, working poor.”

Van Drew stated that Trump assured him he does not want to hurt Medicaid, but we do know that Trump is looking to overhaul the program.

Johnson pushed back on the alleged Medicaid cuts, stating, “Do a word search for yourself. It doesn’t even mention Medicaid in the bill, so that’s an important point.”

There are also serious concerns about raising the debt ceiling significantly and the deficit in the spending bill, which is why Rep. Massie (R-KY) is not supporting the legislation.

After clearing the procedural vote, Johnson faced another challenge: several Democrat representatives who skipped the first vote showed up for the final vote.

However, the worry was all for naught, as the entire caucus except for Massie supported the legislation, giving Johnson a 217-215 win.

Johnson stated, "We got it done. This is the first important step in opening up the reconciliation process. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us. We are going to deliver the America First agenda."

Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) added, “Trump helped us with a number of members. Look, Trump has been an incredible ally in this whole process. Talking to anybody that we asked that really needed to clarify things.

“I’m not going to talk about who Trump talked to and what they talked about. I wasn’t privy to those conversations.”

This is far from over, however, as Johnson will now need to use this blueprint to craft the actual budget, get it through the Senate, and on to Trump's desk in May.

Trump will now have to work with Senator Majority Leader Thune (R-S.D.) to get them on the same page or the final budget will fail.