(NewsNation) — Although President Donald Trump has called it a “big, beautiful bill,” some Republican lawmakers are sounding the alarm over a budget plan pursued by the House that could come up for a vote as soon as Tuesday.
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., has told reporters it is increasingly likely lawmakers will need to pass a stopgap bill to keep the government funded into the fall.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing for the budget resolution — and jokingly asking for prayers as negotiations continue. At an event in Louisiana, however, he maintained confidence that “we’re going to get everyone there.”
At a Tuesday news conference with other members of Republican leadership, Johnson reiterated this sentiment. “We are very, very close right now,” he said.
“There may be a vote tonight, there may not be. Stay tuned,” he told reporters.
Budget plan battle
Republicans can only afford to lose one vote against the resolution. There are some doubts about the bill’s ability to move forward.
Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., told NewsNation partner The Hill that “there’s probably 10 (Republicans) that are really nervous about the situation.” A trio of Republicans, per The Hill, have said they will vote against the proposal.
Supporters of the bill say it fulfills Trump’s campaign promises and addresses his full agenda — including extending his 2017 tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of the year. It would also provide about $300 billion in additional spending for the border and defense.
The legislation also calls for up to $2 trillion in spending cuts, without laying out exactly what those would entail, along with a debt limit increase.
The lack of detail about the potential cuts has some worried Medicaid is not off the table. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., pushed back on these concerns at Tuesday’s news conference.
“The word Medicaid is not even in this bill,” he said. “Democrats are lying about what’s in the bill.”
The bill instructs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the congressional group that oversees Medicaid, to make $880 billion in cuts.
Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., called Scalise’s comments “b——-.”
“I fought like hell to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, I’m not going to let Republicans take those benefits away,” he said in an interview with NewsNation.”Speaker Johnson,Steve Scalise are wrong, and what they’re trying to do is cut the budget by $2 trillion because Elon Musk told him to do it. Elon Musk is not elected president.”
Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is an entity that has been looking to help the Trump administration increase efforts to cut federal spending.
It’s not just Democrats who have voiced frustration with the idea that Medicaid could be cut — Republicans have as well.
“I know the president has already indicated that he does not want to cut from beneficiaries,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., said. “That’s important for me to hear. The speaker has said the same. But then the question remains — how do we get to that $880 billion in savings, and what does it mean for the tax cuts?”
Among the planned “no” votes is Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, who said on X that if this budget passes, “the deficit gets worse, not better.”
“We’re going to add $328 billion to the deficit this year,” Massie later said to reporters. “We’re going to add $295 billion to the deficit the year after that, $242 billion to the deficit after that under the rosiest assumptions. Why would I vote for that?”
Democrats have slammed the tax cuts, saying they would only benefit the wealthy, but they have not put forward alternative legislation.
“House Democrats will not provide one vote to this reckless budget,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, House Democratic leader, said Tuesday, flanked on the Capitol steps by other lawmakers. “We will push back against the Republican budget today. We will push back against the Republican budget tomorrow. We will push back against the reckless Republican budget until it’s buried deep into the ground.”
Protesters joined Democratic legislators as they made their remarks.
Instead of the Republican budget proposal, Democrats are working with the House Appropriations Committee on a bill that would temporarily avoid a government shutdown before the March 14 deadline.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.