President Donald Trump has called on House Republicans to cut taxes for most Americans while spiking them for a select few.
During a meeting Thursday with top House Republicans, Trump specifically asked them to use budget reconciliation to eliminate tax perks for hedge fund managers and sports team owners, and then use the savings to cut taxes for the majority of the American people.
Word of the meeting came from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who later told reporters that “this will be the largest tax cut in history for middle-class, working Americans.”
She then read from a list of “tax priorities” that were discussed during the meeting.
Listen:
BREAKING: Karoline Leavitt lays out President Trump’s tax priorities calling it “the largest tax cut in history for middle-class, working Americans.”
– No tax on tips
– No tax on Social Security
– No tax on overtime pay
– Renewing the 2017 Trump Tax Cuts
– Adjusting the SALT cap… pic.twitter.com/uTkTrFRHSe— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 6, 2025
“No tax on tips, which is obviously a very public campaign promise that the president made,” she said. “No tax on seniors’ Social Security, no tax on overtime pay, renewing President Trump’s 2017 middle-class tax cuts.”
“Adjusting the SALT cap; eliminat[ing] all the special tax breaks for billionaire sports team owners; clos[ing] the carried interest tax deduction loophole [and] tax cuts for ‘Made in America’ products,” she added.
The meeting between Trump and top House Republicans ended after five hours without them haven’t reached a final deal quite yet.
“We worked out the framework for what we believe will be the path forward,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters. “We’re going to meet again tonight to finish up some final details. I think we’ll be able to make some announcement probably by tomorrow.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters something similar.
“We got into a lot of detail on what we need to do both for the budget and the reconciliation side,” he said. “President Trump was very engaged throughout the meeting and we are narrowing down the areas [of] differences. We spent a lot of time on a whiteboard, literally putting down different numbers so we could all be on the same page.”
He added that the House leaders were “very close to bringing this to [the] Budget Committee.”
Speaker Johnson projecting positivity after an over 5 hour meeting at the White House says that Republicans, with Pres. Trump’s help, are getting closer to reaching a deal on a budget resolution. But negotiations will continue through the night to hammer it out
— Marianna Sotomayor (@MariannaReports) February 6, 2025
There’s only one problem: Senate Republicans intend to push forward with their own, entirely separate plan. Their plan contrasts with Johnson’s plan, which is to combine Trump’s top legislative priorities into one giant omnibus bill.
“GOP senators, who have grown frustrated with the slow progress in the House for one giant bill, have set plans to move forward with their own narrower budget bill next week, focused on funding border security and national defense,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
“They would postpone fights over deep spending cuts and extending expiring tax cuts until later in the year, closer to the Dec. 31 deadline when taxes will rise without congressional action. That would require a second budget and a second bill,” the Journal’s reporting continues.
The problem here is that Congress usually only passes one budget reconciliation bill per year, meaning passing the second budget/bill would be an extremely uphill battle.
Sen. Lindsey Graham nevertheless touted the Senate’s bill on Wednesday, tweeting that it “will be the most transformational border security bill in the history of our country.”
To those who believe that Republicans should fulfill their promises on border security, mass deportation of criminal illegal aliens: I agree.
That is why the Senate @BudgetGOP Committee will be moving forward next week to give the Trump Administration’s Border Czar, Tom Homan,…
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) February 5, 2025
Dovetailing back to the House, Johnson said Thursday that he hopes to schedule a Budget Committee meeting to advance their budget resolution by as early as next Tuesday.
“That would allow [House Republicans] to begin to unlock the special budget-reconciliation process to fund Trump’s top agenda items. Under reconciliation, legislation requires only a simple majority to clear the Senate, rather than the 60 votes required of most legislation,” the Journal notes.
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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