US President Donald Trump’s tax cut and spending package has cleared its final hurdle in Congress as the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly approved the bill and sent it to him to sign into law.
The 218-214 vote amounts to a significant victory for the president that will fund his immigration crackdown, make his 2017 tax cuts permanent and deliver new tax breaks that he promised during his re-election campaign.
It also cuts health and food safety net programmes and ends dozens of green energy incentives.
The legislation will add $3.4 trillion (€2.9 trillion) to the country’s $36.2 trillion debt (€31 trillion), according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Despite concerns over the 869-page bill’s price tag and its impact on healthcare programmes, Republicans largely lined up in support, with just two of the party’s 220 house members voting against it.
It had already cleared the Republican-controlled Senate by the narrowest possible margin.
Republicans said the legislation will lower taxes for Americans across the income spectrum and spur economic growth.
Party Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina described the bill as bringing “historic tax relief for working families. Massive investment to secure our nation’s borders. Capturing generational savings. Slashing waste, fraud and abuse in government programs so that they may run more efficiently”.
Every Democrat in Congress voted against the bill, describing it as a giveaway to the wealthy that would leave millions uninsured.
“The focus of this bill, the justification for all of the cuts that will hurt everyday Americans, is to provide massive tax breaks for billionaires,” Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in an eight-hour, 46-minute speech that was the longest in the House of Representative’s history.
President Trump kept up the pressure throughout, cajoling and threatening politicians as he pressed them to send him the legislation by tomorrow, the Independence Day holiday.
“FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE. RIDICULOUS!!!” he wrote on social media.
Republicans raced to meet the deadline, working through last weekend and holding all-night debates in the house and the senate.
The bill was passed by the senate on Tuesday in 51-50 vote. Vice President JD Vance cast the deciding ballot.
According to the CBO, the bill would lower tax revenues by $4.5 trillion (€38 trillion) over ten years and cut spending by $1.1 trillion (€936bn).
