BY SUSAN HEAVEY
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-cut bill, stalled for days by Republican infighting over spending cuts, won approval from a key congressional committee on Sunday to advance toward possible passage in the House of Representatives later this week.
The action was a big win for Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, after hardline Republican conservatives on Friday blocked the bill from clearing the House Budget Committee over a dispute involving spending cuts to the Medicaid healthcare program for lower-income Americans and the repeal of green energy tax credits.
Four hardline members of the committee’s 21 Republicans allowed the legislation to advance by voting “present” in a rare Sunday night session. The bill passed in a 17-16 vote, with all Democrats voting against it.
The hardliners had spent much of the day in closed-door negotiations with House Republican leaders and White House officials.
“The deliberations continue at this very moment. They will continue on into the week, and I suspect, right up until the time we put this big, beautiful bill before the House,” House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington said.
Nonpartisan analysts say the bill, which would extend the 2017 tax cuts that were Trump’s signature first-term legislative win, would add $3 trillion to $5 trillion to the nation’s $36.2 trillion in debt over the next decade. Moody’s cited the rising debt, which it said was on track to reach 134 percent of GDP by 2035, for its decision on Friday to downgrade the US credit rating.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dismissed the cut’s significance in a pair of Sunday television interviews, saying the bill would spur economic growth that would outpace what the nation owed.
