Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' passed after marathon debate and high drama

“The Republicans in the House of Representatives have just passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” Our Party is united like never before and, our country is “hot”. We are going to have a signing celebration at the White House tomorrow, at 4 pm EST” (Saturday 1.30 am India time), posted US president Donald Trump on social media platform Truth Social after the contentious, over 800-page Bill was passed by the US House of Representatives. Democrats unitedly opposed what Jeffries called the ‘big, ugly Bill’ and other Democrats the ‘big, bullshit bill’.

Two Republican Members of the House broke ranks and voted against the Bill with the Democrats, who remained united. The House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries spoke for a record 8 hours and 44 minutes to stall the Bill for as long as possible.

There was high drama as the House Speaker Mike Johnson refused to put the Bill to vote till he was certain that Republicans opposing the Bill had fallen in line. There were allegations that the US president met the Republican lawmakers in the White House all through the day and night in a bid to ‘persuade’ them to vote for the Bill.

On CNBC Republican Representative Ralph Norman was asked what made him vote for the Bill since he was opposing the Bill the previous day. “You were negative on the bill yesterday. Is there something different about it today?” to which the Representative replied, “We met with President Trump”.

Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ before the House of Representatives—and Medicaid

The Bill seeks to allow tax cuts to the very rich, more defence spending, empower the President to borrow more to cover budget deficits and make Medicaid harder to access. In initial reactions, reported The New York Times, experts said that the Bill would make access to college education more difficult.

"The sweeping cuts to Medicaid could also have ramifications for higher education," the report added. It quoted experts as saying that the changes, which include new work requirements, will make juggling work, education and family responsibilities even harder for low-income students.

The Catholic Church in the US came out forcefully against the "big, beautiful bill" as twenty bishops signed an interfaith letter stating that its "passage would be a moral failure for American society as a whole…there is nothing less Christ-like than cutting healthcare and food stamps for the poor. 

Democrat socialist Senator Bernie Sanders posted, “Republicans are celebrating the passage of the largest Medicaid cut in U.S. history to pay for the largest tax break for billionaires in American history. 51,000 Americans will die each year so that the top 1 per cent can get a $1 trillion tax break. This bill is a death sentence.”

Republican Representative Brendan Boyle admitted on TV that members of the Republican caucus privately admitted that they did not support the Bill but publicly went and voted for it. “Truth is, the Republicans are more loyal to Donald Trump than their voters,” he conceded. He was vindicated when the Louisiana state legislature passed a resolution condemning the Bill because of the impact on Medicaid—40 per cent of Louisianans are on Medicaid.