BBC News, Washington, DC
The U.S. Congress passed Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill to pass a huge and hard victory for the president and his domestic agenda.
After a tough meeting on Capitol Hill, the House of Representatives passed the bill by 218 to 214 On Thursday afternoon. It passed a vote in the Senate on Tuesday.
Trump gave Republican-controlled Congress a July 4 deadline, sending him a final version of the bill to sign the law.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill could increase the federal deficit by 3.3tn (2.4tn) over the next 10 years and leave millions of dollars without health coverage, a projection of the White House dispute.
Trump told reporters Thursday night that the bill would “turn the country into a rocket ship.”
“It will be a great bill for the country,” he said.
He is expected to sign the legal ceremony on the national holiday EDT (22:00 BST) on July 4.
After the vote, a victorious Republican spokesman, Mike Johnson, came out of the House and told reporters that “faith” was the key to the rally supporting his party.
“I believe the people standing behind me…some of them are more interesting,” he said. “I mean, with the greatest respect.”
He had to convince him that when the Senate passed the version of the bill, he was Chip Roy, a Texas Republican representative. He called the Senate version “travesty” but changed his mind at the beginning of the vote.
“I feel we’ve done a good job in key areas,” Roy said, although the house hasn’t made any changes to the Senate bill.
While some Republicans, such as Roy, boycotted the Senate version, two members of Trump’s own party voted “No” on Thursday: Thomas Massi and Brian Fitzpatrick.
After Johnson announced the legislation passed the chamber by four votes, dozens of Republican lawmakers gathered on the House floor and shouted “America! America!”
The bill was postponed Thursday by Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who delivered the longest speech in the history of the Chamber of Commerce.
His “magic” speech was a habit of allowing the party leaders to speak, and as long as they liked it, they could run for eight hours and 45 minutes.
Jeffries promised to devote his “good times for the American people” to condemn the bill’s impact on poor Americans.
The legislation saves by cutting tax breaks on food welfare and health care and clean energy projects.
It also paid two of Trump’s major campaign commitments – making his 2017 tax cut permanently lower and for a $450 million tax over 10 years to tips, overtime and social security recipients.
About $150 billion (£110 billion) will be spent on border security, detention centres and immigration law enforcement personnel. Another $150 billion is allocated to military spending, including the president’s “Golden Dome” missile defense plan.
Democrats have used procedural surgery to delay the House vote and are thoroughly criticizing the final bill.
They describe it as taking health care and food subsidies from millions of Americans while cutting taxes to the rich.
“Today it caused them in dark and painful times and called the bill a “dangerous list of extreme Republican priorities,” said former spokesman Nancy Pelosi.
“Shame of those who voted to harm so many people,” said Deborah Ross of North Carolina.
Yassamin Ansari of Arizona said she was “really sad now” and Marc Veasey of Texas marked the Republican Party as “co-husband, chaos and corruption”.
Republican insurgents were worried about the impact on state debt for much of Wednesday, prompting Trump’s angry announcement.
He wrote after midnight local time on Thursday: “What are Republicans waiting for?
Both of the Congress’s parliament are controlled by Trump’s Republican Party, but within the party, several factions differ from key policies in lengthy legislation.
In the early hours of Thursday, Republican leaders became more confident and voted through the bill’s procedures after 03:00 ET (07:00 GMT).
The last vote for the bill will be conducted approximately 12 hours after EDT 14:30 (19:30 GMT).
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