Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy suggested President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill” tanked in a congressional committee because the president wasn’t there to bail out House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and intervene on the legislation’s behalf.
Trump’s signature bill would extend tax cuts implemented during his first administration, among other priorities. It was blocked by a handful of GOP fiscal hawks during a House budget committee vote over the weekend while Trump was abroad on a Middle East tour. The committee vote represents the final hurdle before the entire House considers the legislation in a full floor vote.
During an appearance on a radio show, McCarthy argued that now that the president is back in Washington, he’ll be able to corral the Republicans bucking Johnson’s leadership. Trump is playing double duty as president and speaker as GOP factions raise havoc in the House, McCarthy implied, taking a dig at Johnson.
“What [the vote] really shows is, once President Trump gets back in the country, I mean, poor President Trump is being the president, the speaker at the same time. I think we’ll get that bill through,” McCarthy said on John Catsimatidis’s radio show, Cats Roundtable.
With the House Budget Committee set to reconvene and hammer out details on the bill on Sunday evening, McCarthy said Trump’s presence will fuel success.
“Well, they’re back in this week, and I think the president will be back in and really looking to these members to get the job done, because if they don’t get the job done, your taxes go up, and that’s not going to happen, and it has a lot of the promises the president made about no tax on tips and others, and it will just help unleash the economy, because it would bring security and stability, that they know this is this is not going to happen, any tax increases,” McCarthy told Catsimatidis on WABC 770 AM.
The bill failed in a 16-21 committee vote Friday when Reps. Ralph Norman (R-SC), Chip Roy (R-TX), Josh Brecheen (R-OK), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), and Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) joined all Democrats in voting down the legislation.
BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL IN THE BALANCE: GOP FRACTURES OVER MEDICAID WORK REQUIREMENTS
The five Republicans wanted, among other things, larger spending cuts included in the “big beautiful bill,” which includes nearly $5 trillion in tax cuts and ends taxes on tips, overtime wages, and auto loan interest.
“This bill falls profoundly short,” said Roy. “It does not do what we say it does with respect to deficits.”