The fate of the budget blueprint to unlock President Trump's spending and tax cuts was questioned in the House on Tuesday.
House Republican leaders have already called for a vote to pass the party's budget resolutions the next hurdle after the Senate pushed the measures in weekend sessions.
The lawsuit will clarify how the GOP will implement Trump's domestic agenda and move it through Congress over unified Democrat opposition. Defeat or not moving it puts his priorities at risk, sending Republicans back to the drawings and creating a whole new plan.
But even after Trump met around two hours of conservative hardline groups Tuesday afternoon who refused to back up the resolution, it was not clear whether he had persuaded enough to guarantee passage, given the party's slim majority. At the meeting, the president “expresses his commitment to making sure he gets the job done, and not only finds real savings to change the debt trajectory of the country, but also protects critical programs,” said Mike Johnson.
Johnson has leaned heavily towards Trump in recent months, persuading GOP skeptics to fall in line with important votes. Even the most solid holdouts have the president showing extraordinary respect and succumbing to key moments. After meeting with Trump on Tuesday, Republicans who at least expressed concern about budgetary measures said they supported the resolution.
“We have home issues, we have Senate issues,” Kansas president Ron Estes said. “But at the end of the day, I think we all work for the same goal.”
But some didn't move. Texas representative Chip Roy told CNN he was still opposed to the resolution. And some of the most determined holdouts didn't even attend meetings with Trump because they weren't invited or refused to go.
Freedom Caucus chairperson Maryland President Andy Harris said he was invited to a meeting with Trump but refused to attend.
“No matter what the president tells anyone, the votes aren't there,” Harris said, adding that there are “at least 12” Republicans who refuse to vote for the resolution.
“He's not going to change my mind,” Harris said of Trump.
Texas president Joday Arlington, chairman of the Budget Committee, who called the solution “not safe and disappointing,” was also not present. He said, “I'm going to do something else.”
If all Democrats vote, Johnson could afford to lose less than three Republicans in the resolution. Many more than that say they are against it.
The conservative holdout is unhappy with the level of spending cuts in Senate resolutions: about $4 billion over a decade, or part of $2 trillion in spending cuts approved by the House.
Republican leaders say it is the minimum amount aimed at giving them more flexibility to comply with the Senate's strict procedural rules. They must follow those rules to exploit a process called settlement that allows them to promote tax and budgetary measures through the Senate and protect them from filibusters.
But first, the Senate and House of Representatives must agree to the same budget blueprint.
Many House Republicans are also unhappy with the Senate's claim that extending the tax cuts Trump signed into law in 2017 would cost nothing. Senate Republicans have adopted that approach to allow tax cuts to be extended indefinitely without inflated the deficit. However, the family's finances Hawks reject the strategy and explain it as a gimmick.
“There's no serious individual to suggest that this could reduce the deficit,” said Missouri president Eric Burrison. “This just accelerates our deficit.”
Their resistance creates problems that Johnson is familiar with. Johnson must once again try to vote for hardline and deeply unpopular budget-related laws.
Johnson argued Tuesday that House Republicans need to approve legislation, so lawmakers can write bills with the tax and spending cuts Trump supports.
“This amendment allows us to get off the sidelines, get on the field and start this game,” Johnson said. “We have to accomplish this.”
He added: “We don't have the luxury of self-satisfaction, and we really don't have the time to ditter about this.”
