Trump domestic agenda hangs in balance as key vote fails

Republican fiscal hawks have sunk a key vote on advancing the mega-bill that is the centerpiece of Donald Trump’s domestic agenda, in a significant setback for the US president’s tax and spending policies.

Trump is pushing to usher into law his so-called One Big, Beautiful Bill, pairing an extension of his first-term tax cuts with savings that will see millions of the poorest Americans lose their health care coverage.

But a congressional Republican Party riven with divisions and competing in its rank-and-file has complicated the process, raising serious doubts that the sprawling package can pass a vote of the full House of Representatives next week.

Despite a social media post by Trump calling holdouts in his party “grandstanders,” five conservatives in the Republican-led House Budget Committee have joined Democrats to reject the legislation.

“This bill falls profoundly short. It does not do what we say it does with respect to the deficit. We are writing checks we cannot cash and our children are going to pay the price,” says Texas conservative Chip Roy.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to spend the weekend seeking a compromise with his party’s rebels.

But it will be a fraught balancing act, as any concession he makes to the debt hawks could cause a chain reaction of defections from the moderates.

Republican senators meanwhile, have made no secret of their intention to make major changes when the package reaches the upper chamber.

“We’ve been talking with the House and there’s a lot of things we agree on… But there’ll be changes in a number of areas,” John Hoeven of North Dakota tells NBC.