It is a domestic victory for US President Donald Trump – and at the same time a highly controversial project.
After a long struggle in the congress, the House of Representatives passed a tax and expenditure law that the Republican had significantly promoted. This set the course to finance central promises from his election campaign.
The law, which is known under the name “One Big Beautiful Bill” (“A large, beautiful law”), ensured bitter arguments in the American parliament – including nightly marathon sessions and an extra round through the House of Representatives. Household -political conservative critics from Trump’s own party warned of a drastic increase in public debt. The Democrats rejected the project because, in their view, it relieves wealthy people – and shortened the weakest in the country. However, it was said goodbye.
How the law was passed
Because of the deep ideological trenches, the parliamentary process was extremely difficult. Until shortly before the end it was unclear whether it would be enough for Trump in the House of Representatives for a victory: only with effort and pressure from the White House to individual MPs managed to secure enough voices in his own ranks. 218 Trump’s party colleagues finally voted for the law, only the two Republicans Thomas Massie and Brian Fitzpatrick did not want to go. As expected, the Democrats rejected the law.
There had also been three Republican deviators in the other parliamentary chamber, the Senate. US Vice President JD Vance had to step in and give the crucial vote. In his role as President of the Senate, he can be the tongue on the scales in a stalemate.
In both chambers, the Democrats spent all means to delay the project. The democratic minority leader in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, gave a speech in the plenary hall of the Congress Chamber more than eight-hour. According to matching US media, he set a new record.
The democratic minority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, had previously been a symbolic needle base in the other chamber: he had the original title of the law deleted. Officially, it no longer says “One Big Beautiful Bill” – which Trump and his Republicans do not prevent it from calling it that way.
Name or not: Trump can be presented for signing – just in good time to his self -set period. The president had put massive pressure on the Republicans for weeks so that it ends up on his desk until the American independence day on July 4, i.e. this Friday.
What is in the law
> At the center of the law is the permanent extension of tax relief from Trump’s first term. In addition, new tax cuts are also planned. For example, a tax on drinking money and overtime should be eliminated up to a certain amount.
The law provides for more expenses for defense and border protection of the United States, but there are strong cuts in other areas – for example in the social benefits. There is criticism primarily of the intended cuts on the US health system Medicaid. The state program supports low earners and people with disabilities. The congressional budget office (household office of the US congress, or CBO for short) estimates that the law would lose their health insurance almost 12 million Americans by 2034.
Cuts are also carried out in climate and environmental policy funding. Grants for low -emission electricity generation, environmentally friendly building materials and sustainable construction methods in the public sector are to be deleted. The national parks should also save vigorously. Critics see this in the energy transition and a weakening of American future industries in competition with China.
Why some Republicans struggled
It is hardly surprising that the Democrats reject the law. The unusually strong resistance to Trump’s project in his own ranks was politically explosive – despite the ultimately successful farewell.
On the one hand, there was criticism of increasing debt burden from household -politically conservative republicans. According to the CBO estimate, the deficit will increase by the law within the next ten years by around $ 3.3 trillion (around 2.8 billion euros). The United States currently has a debt of around $ 36 trillion (around 30.5 trillion euros). The law is intended to increase the scope for new debts by $ 5 trillion.
On the other hand, the law also has risks for some Republicans with a view to the congress elections in the coming year. According to surveys, it is one of the most unpopular legal projects of the past decades, even among Republican voters, approval is behavior.
The situation is particularly delicate for MPs from so -called Swing Districts – i.e. constituencies in which Republicans and Democrats are traditionally closely related. The Democrats have already announced that the election campaign is made with the cuts in social and health services.
What Trump and his Republicans say about the law
The US President himself is probably the greatest advocate of the law and vehemently rejects criticism of the project he promoted. On his Truth Social platform, he recently emphasized in capital letters that the United States would experience an “economic Renaissance” when the law was passed that had never existed.
What Elon Musk has to do with it
A former ally of Trump’s – Tech billionaire Elon Musk – sees it differently: he vehemently criticized the increase in debt and had come into a dispute over the law with Trump that resulted in an open mud fight. In the course of this, Musk recently promised the establishment of a new party: “If this insane expenditure law is adopted, the ‘America Party’ will be founded the next day.”
In fact, there is a two -party system in the United States. In addition to the dominant Democrats and Republicans, there are other, smaller parties – but due to structural disadvantages in this system, they actually have no chance of greater political success.
Washington (dpa-Afx)