Trump's 'One Big, Beautiful Bill Act' for tax cuts passes in Republican-controlled House by just 1 vote

The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives narrowly passed a sweeping tax and spending bill on Thursday (May 22), advancing President Donald Trump’s core domestic agenda despite fierce criticism that it would devastate health care and deepen the national debt.

The so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act”, approved by a razor-thin 215 to 214 vote, now moves to the Senate, where it is expected to face a month of intense negotiations. The legislation, which extends Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for another decade while slashing public welfare programmes, is central to the president’s vision of a “Golden Age” in America.

“Legislation of this magnitude is truly nation shaping and life changing,” said Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who led the overnight push to pass the bill. “It’s the kind of transformational change that future generations will study one day. They’ll look back at this day as a turning point in American history.”

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The marathon debate revealed deep divisions within the Republican ranks, with hardline fiscal conservatives threatening to tank the bill before eleventh-hour concessions brought them back into the fold. Democrats stood united in opposition, branding the bill a handout to billionaires at the expense of working-class Americans.

The legislation is the centrepiece of Trump’s domestic policy ambitions as he seeks to shape a second term in the White House. But its passage came despite warnings from independent analysts, including the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which estimates the bill could add up to $4 trillion to the deficit over a decade.

Bill faces heavy criticism

According to the CBO, the bill would enrich the top 10 per cent of earners while making the poorest 10 per cent worse off, chiefly through deep cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programmes. The White House Council of Economic Advisors has predicted the plan will generate economic growth of up to 5.2 per cent, a figure that far exceeds mainstream forecasts.

Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, insisted the bill “does not add to the deficit” and claimed it would generate $1.6 trillion in savings through unspecified spending cuts. Financial markets, however, reacted with concern. The yield on 10-year US Treasury notes jumped to its highest level since February amid fears the plan would further inflate the $36 trillion federal debt.

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Democrats decried the bill as catastrophic for millions of Americans. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called it “the largest cut to health care in American history… in order to enact the largest tax breaks for billionaires in American history.”

CBO estimates suggest that 8.6 million low-income Americans could lose health insurance as a result of the proposed Medicaid cuts. Some moderate Republicans, particularly from coastal districts, had expressed unease with the scale of the cuts, but fell in line after Trump made a rare appearance on Capitol Hill on Tuesday and held private meetings with holdouts on Wednesday.

Speaker Johnson, who could only afford to lose three votes, made concessions to both wings of the party. To win over conservatives, the bill accelerates new work requirements for Medicaid recipients to begin in 2026 and brings forward the expiration of clean energy tax credits. Meanwhile, moderates from high-tax states were appeased with a four-fold increase in the state and local tax deduction cap, raising it from $10,000 to $40,000.

Despite Thursday’s narrow success, the bill faces a rocky path in the Senate, where even some Republicans are expected to demand changes. Senate leaders have said they hope to send a revised version of the bill to Trump’s desk by 4 July.