As we reported yesterday, Speaker Mike Johnson CANCELLED all voting on the House floor originally scheduled for Friday — but today has brought a new problem. That cancellation drew all the fire you would expect, considering it’s not the FIRST time the Speaker has pulled that stunt while simultaneously touting ‘success’ and blaming House Democrats. Now, five Republicans in the Budget Committee are drawing even more fire for creating ANOTHER hurdle for the President’s agenda. Yesterday’s cancellation only effected floor voting on House-wide issues… like a final vote on President Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’. But it didn’t stop the individual Committee votes from moving forward, as each Committee sets their own agenda and schedule. The ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ has “passed” through 11 different Committees with each one tweaking and modifying the bill, setting up a tough job for the Speaker in making ultimate peace between the warring Republican factions. That was the problem as we left it yesterday, with our report on Friday’s vote cancellation. Today, those 5 Republicans I alluded to have kicked up a new problem, even after President Trump pressed House Republicans to UNITED behind his agenda for the good of America in this post shared by Charlie Kirk: President Trump calls on Republicans to unite behind the One Big Beautiful Bill. “STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE!” pic.twitter.com/JEZZ5Akumv — Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) May 16, 2025 Here’s the full text of the President’s Truth Social post: Republicans MUST UNITE behind, “THE ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL!” Not only does it cut Taxes for ALL Americans, but it will kick millions of Illegal Aliens off of Medicaid to PROTECT it for those who are the ones in real need. The Country will suffer greatly without this Legislation, with their Taxes going up 65%. It will be blamed on the Democrats, but that doesn’t help our Voters. We don’t need “GRANDSTANDERS” in the Republican Party. STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE! It is time to fix the MESS that Biden and the Democrats gave us. Thank you for your attention to this matter! Even with the President’s clear direction for House Republicans to “STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE!”… The bill FAILED to pass through the House Budget Committee today by a 16-21 vote. Five Republicans on the Budget Committee voted “No”, even though several Committee members expressed SUPPORT for the President’s agenda; just not in it’s current fiscal form. That sets up a looming tax hike which would be the single biggest increase in taxes levied against Americans in HISTORY — among other problems that it’s failure would bring. That is, if the Speaker can’t figure out how to ‘pull a rabbit out of a hat’, as one anonymous House Republican put it. Here’s the breaking news on today’s failed vote as reported by Fox News: BREAKING: President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” has failed in the House Budget Committee by a vote of 16-21, according to Fox News. The five Republicans who voted against the reconciliation bill were: Rep. Chip Roy (TX) Rep. Ralph Norman (SC) Rep. Andrew Clyde (GA) Rep.… pic.twitter.com/jgpsJMtU1O — RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) May 16, 2025 As reported, Rep. Lloyd Smucker out of Pennsylvania was originally a “Yes” vote. He actually switched his vote at a point in the process that would procedurally allow a REVOTE to happen in the committee at a later point. Smucker was quick to take to social media, concerned that his “No” vote would cast him alongside the Republican holdouts: 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. — Rep. Lloyd Smucker (@RepSmucker) May 16, 2025 The other four holdouts besides Smucker’s procedural “No” vote are: Rep. Chip Roy Rep. Ralph Normal Rep. Josh Brecheen Rep. Andrew Clyde Smucker indicated there would likely be another Budget Committee vote on Monday, according to The Hill: Fiscal hawks on the House Budget Committee on Friday sunk a key vote on advancing the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that encompasses President Trump’s legislative agenda, marking a stunning setback for the legislation. The 16-21 vote throws up a hurdle for leaders hoping to send the bill to the Senate by Memorial Day — but are still haggling over last minute changes to appease not only the fiscal hawks but moderates seeking bigger blue-state tax breaks. Five Republicans voted no: Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.), Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) and Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.). Republicans could only afford to lose two of their members and still advance the legislation. Smucker changed his vote from yes to no in a procedural move. “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 wrote on X. House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) called the committee into recess after the vote. He told members after the markup that he did not expect the committee to come back on Friday, to “go home,” and that he would let members know if they would resume first thing Monday. Smucker said the panel will “ideally” vote to advance the bill Monday. “We’re working through some remaining issues here, there are just a few outstanding issues I think everyone will get to yes, and we’re going to l resolve this as quick as we can and hopefully have a vote, ideally on Monday, and we can advance this bill,” he said. As The Hill reported, Rep. Jodey Arrington told members to ‘go home’ after the vote failed. Here’s a clip showing all the emotion of that moment: HOUSE BUDGET CHAIR: “I do not anticipate us coming back today…go home.” pic.twitter.com/sy3mgUX32J — Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 16, 2025 One of President Trump’s most vocal supporters in the House spoke out about the Budget Committee’s failure to advance the President’s agenda. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene invoked a widely held principle that many of President Trump’s supporters agree with — in spite of his ‘Big Beautiful Bill’. Her option would be to take individual components of the President’s agenda week-by-week, and pass them separately. Rather than waiting on a big comprehensive bill and all it’s hurdles, she said that would allow the President’s agenda to move forward with an “easy, easy win”, much faster. Here’s her response while appearing on Real America’s Voice earlier today: The American people gave President Trump a clear mandate in November, but certain House Republicans are refusing to even vote for his One Big, Beautiful Bill. Voters didn’t send us here to play games. They sent us to pass his agenda. pic.twitter.com/oaflFmSEgc — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) May 16, 2025 MTG’s continued push to approach this legislation in bite-sized chunks rather than one enormous stand-alone bill rings true for much of the MAGA movement. Not only would it avoid the endless squabbling over tiny details, but it would push back against the unprincipled COMPROMISES that are almost certainly necessary when trying to pass an enormous piece of legislation. But with President Trump — and his Treasury Secretary — pushing hard for this bill in it’s current ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL’ form… it’s unlikely at this state to be broken up into single-issue legislation. Here was Scott Bessent’s post earlier this morning, sharing the President’s call to unity and outlining his own hopes for the bill: With full GOP support, we’re pushing @POTUS’ “ONE BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL” across the finish line to deliver tax cuts, increase wages, and bring back U.S. manufacturing. With this bill, families could see between $4K to $5K more in take-home pay. Workers could get a boost in… pic.twitter.com/Dth3TArTUM — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) May 16, 2025 Here is the full text of the Treasury Secretary’s post: With full GOP support, we’re pushing @POTUS ‘ “ONE BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL” across the finish line to deliver tax cuts, increase wages, and bring back U.S. manufacturing. With this bill, families could see between $4K to $5K more in take-home pay. Workers could get a boost in real wages by $2.1K to $3.3K per worker. The proposal will restore 100% expensing for equipment and expand that incentive to new factory construction to accelerate reindustrialization. The deduction for auto loans on U.S.-made cars will spur more production, jobs, and tax relief. There was apparently no guarantee which way the wind was going to blow during this morning’s Budget Committee vote, judging from the details coming out. One Representative who wasn’t expected for the vote later showed up, increasing hopes that the bill would pass through the Committee — helping to clear the way for a full floor vote next week. But the same four House Republicans who warned they weren’t in favor of the bill prior to the vote never budged during this morning’s meetings, according to a report from Fox News with more details leading up to the failed vote: The committee met to mark up and debate the bill, a massive piece of legislation that’s a product of 11 different House committees’ individual efforts to craft policy under their jurisdictions. The result is a wide-ranging bill that advances Trump’s priorities on the border, immigration, taxes, energy, defense and raising the debt limit. Emotions ran high in the hallway outside the House Budget Committee’s meeting room from the outset, however, giving the media little indication of how events would transpire. Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, who had been at home with his wife and newborn baby, surprised reporters when he arrived at the Cannon House Office Building after he was initially expected to miss the committee meeting. His appearance gave House GOP leaders some added wiggle room, allowing the committee to lose two Republican votes and still pass the bill, rather than just one. But at least four House Republicans went into the meeting warning they were opposed to the bill. Shortly before the meeting was expected to begin, Roy, Norman, Clyde and Brecheen abruptly left the room while saying little to reporters on the way out. Each came back a short while later and criticized the legislation in their opening remarks. The fiscal hawks are frustrated about provisions curbing Medicaid in the bill not going into effect until 2029, and had similar issues with the delay in phasing out green energy subsidies from former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. At one point, Norman came out of the room and called for the committee to recess in order to work through the fiscal hawks’ concerns. “If they call for a vote now, it’s not going to end well,” he said, adding he was still waiting on commitments from House GOP leaders. Minutes later, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., who is not a member of the committee but had been meeting with holdouts, told reporters he wanted the legislation to advance through the Budget panel “as soon as possible.” When asked about Norman’s comments, he said, “I just walked out of the meeting with him a few minutes ago as well. We’re working on some questions that Ralph and others have, and we’re going to be getting them answers as soon as we get them back from the Trump administration.” Roy said on X, formerly Twitter, after the vote, “We were making progress, but the vote was called, and the problems were not resolved, so I voted no. I am staying in Washington this weekend to deliver.” Earlier, Trump took to Truth Social where he suggested those opposing the bill were “grandstanders” and he pressed Republicans to unite behind it. That disunity is unlikely to go over well with President Trump after his calls for Republican unity went unheeded. One ABC affiliate out of Chicago reported on that divide, in spite of the pressure applied by the President, in this (SURPRISINGLY… it’s ABC after all!) informative report: Regardless of Speaker Johnson’s public positivity on his ability to get this legislation passed, it remains to be seen if that will actually materialize. If not — that enormous tax hike will automatically kick in as President Trump’s tax cuts expire, originally enacted during his first term. If the Speaker didn’t already have his work cut out for him, this Committee-level revolt of House Republicans will only complicate his job over the coming week.