Tax the rich? Slash spending? Republicans wrestle with economic priorities in the Trump era

By LISA MASCARO WASHINGTON AP What exactly the Republican Party stands for in terms of economic guidelines in the second Trump administration is a question reaching an inflection point Is it the party that promotes free-market prosperity or a st-century populism Does it stick with the No new taxes pledge that has been GOP political orthodoxy for decades or do Republicans tax the rich as President Donald Trump suggests Roll back the Obama-era s healthcare care expansion and the President Joe Biden s green ability investments or protect the federal flow of expenditure dollars generating jobs in the states Slash deficit spending or spike the nation s now trillion debt load Free deal or Trump s tariffs As House Speaker Mike Johnson R-La and Republicans race to draft Trump s big beautiful bill of trillion in tax breaks and trillion in spending cuts the final product will set the party on a defining path It s still a work in progress This idea of the American dream where we are the best country in the world which I believe we are will be gone and it ll be our fault so we have to do something right now to address it noted Rep Rich McCormick R-Ga And everybody wants to say Oh yeah we should do something but nobody s willing to say what that hard choice is The GOP is shape-shifting its economic protocol priorities in real time transforming from a party that once put a premium on lower taxes and smaller establishment into something more reflective of the interests of the working-class coalition that depends on the federal safety net and put Trump in the White House On the one side there s the old-school Republican stalwarts who have guided guidelines thinking for years Among them are former House Speaker Newt Gingrich anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist who says tax increases would be stupid destructive and the influential Club for Advance which pours millions into political campaigns But a rising neo-populist power center with proximity to Trump carries clout with Steve Banon and others who reject the traditional trickle-down economic policies and propose a new direction that more benefits Americans Divisions run strong within the Republican Party which holds the majority on Capitol Hill and is bulldozing past Democratic objections to push its package forward on its own GOP lawmakers are under mounting pressure to set aside their differences by Johnson s Memorial Day deadline especially as Trump s tariffs stoke unease and they are eager to signal that the market is under control on their watch This is a once in a generation bill noted Rep August Pfluger R-Texas chairman of the Republican Evaluation Committee a large group of House conservatives He mentioned not only would the emerging package extend the tax breaks and cut spending it also gives us a mentality just to settle the markets to give particular predictability to give everybody in our country the ability to go hey our financial sector is going to be strong This weekend Republican leaders are working to finish the separate sections that will make up that big package before anticipated citizens hearings in the coming week But the final three on tax procedures Medicaid and green potential programs and food stamp assistance have proved to be the majority of complicated posing the biggest political risks Moderate conservative Republicans in the House have signed on to letters opposing steep cuts to Medicaid which provides robustness care to more than million Americans The Medicaid venture has expanded in the years since the Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare became law as more states signed up for federal cost-sharing allotments and people benefited from enhanced federal credits to pay their insurance premiums Republicans who pledged to repeal and replace the robustness law during Trump s first term are now insisting they only want to target what they say is waste fraud and abuse in Medicaid as a great number of fight to save its more popular parts Plenty of of those same moderate GOP lawmakers also oppose rolling back the green potential tax breaks that Democrats approved under Biden as companies invest in wind solar and other renewable vitality enhancement At the same time the more conservative Republicans are roaring back insisting on deep cuts A few Republicans noted the party must hold to the original GOP budget framework of up to trillion in spending cuts which they argue are needed to prevent the tax cuts from piling on annual deficits that are fueling the nation s debt load The cost of the tax cuts first approved by Republicans in during Trump s first term is expected to grow if Republicans add other priorities including no taxes on tipped wages or Social Measure income Estimates put the final costs beyond trillion We must hold that line on fiscal discipline to put the country back on a sustainable path wrote Rep Lloyd Smucker R-Pa and colleagues Meanwhile Johnson is negotiating with a core group of five Republicans from the highest tax regions in New York New Jersey and California who claim they will not vote for any plan unless it reinstates a bigger state and local tax deduction called SALT for their constituents They called the latest proposal to triple the cap on state and local tax deductions which is now a year to insulting Trump himself has waded into the debate in uneven tactics The president narrated Johnson this past week that he wished to see a higher tax rate on incomes of million for single filers or million for couples only to sort of back off the idea Friday Republicans should perhaps not do it but I m OK if they do Trump wrote on social media With Republicans going it alone over the objections of Democrats in the House and Senate critical of the tax package as a giveaway to the rich that will hurt Americans who depend on federal services leaders will need almost every Republican on board One Republican Rep Chip Roy of Texas a member of the House Freedom Caucus implored his colleagues not to worry about the politics of the next midterm electoral process and to stick to party principles How about we do the job we got elected months ago to do and see where the chips fall he posted on social media Cut Spending Shrink the Deficit Cut Taxes Lead Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Leah Askarinam contributed to this statement