Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) tore into House Republicans over sinking a key committee vote that would help advance President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” calling it a “real misstep.”
“The stock market seems like it is moving up. Now, if Congress can start doing the things that President Trump’s doing, it would even help us more. Today was a real misstep on the Republicans part, in the budget side, that four of them looked out for themselves instead of moving the bill along, reconciliation,” McCarthy during his appearance on John Catsimatidis’s radio show, “Cats Roundtable” on WABC 770 AM.
Five House GOP fiscal hawks — Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.), Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) and Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.) — voted against advancing the measure that encompasses Trump’s legislative agenda on Friday. The vote was 16-21.
“To be clear—I fully support the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB). My vote today in the Budget Committee is a procedural requirement to preserve the committee’s opportunity to reconsider the motion to advance OBBB,” Smucker said Friday after the vote on social media platform X.
Fiscal hawks have argued that cuts to Medicaid are insufficient and that reforms should come into effect sooner, while more moderate Republicans are looking for an increase in the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap.
The measure, which the Republicans are hoping to pass before Memorial Day, includes removing taxes on overtime and tips, extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, along with new Medicaid work requirements for “able-bodied” adults, which is projected to cause millions to lose health coverage. The bill would also lead to repealing green energy tax credits, which Democrats passed in 2022.
McCarthy also appeared to take a slight dig at current Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.)
“What really shows is, once President Trump gets back in the country, I mean, poor President Trump is being the president the speaker at the same time, I think we’ll get that bill through,” McCarthy said.
The House Budget Committee will reconvene on Sunday at 10 p.m., The Hill reported.
“Well, they’re back in this week, and I think the president will be back in and really looking to these members to get the job done, because if they don’t get the job done, your taxes go up, and that’s not going to happen, and it has a lot of the promises the president made about no tax on tips and others, and it will just help unleash the economy, because it would bring security and stability, that they know this is this is not going to happen, any tax increases,” McCarthy told Catsimatidis.
