President Donald Trump met for hours with House Republican leadership Thursday as Congress works to get traction on a major bill to extend and expand tax cuts and trim other regulations.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the main focus of the meeting would be “tax priorities of the Trump administration."
"The president is committed to working with Congress to get this done," Leavitt said.
Lawmakers returning from the meeting were relatively tight-lipped about progress.
"It went great," Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Hern told reporters. "The president's feeling good, he was very involved, was very helpful. A lot of good work happened today."
Central to the bill is a continuation of tax cuts that were put in place in 2017, during President Trump's first term. He has also envisioned removing taxes on social security, overtime and tips — which he campaigned on — and expanding the U.S. border security apparatus.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates continued tax cuts would add about $4.6 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade.
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Republicans have struggled to find consensus on how to achieve those goals, and disagree over what the final price tag ought to be.
In a bid to address those divisions, Senate Republicans have proposed splitting the party's budget goals into two bills: One costing $300 billion for the border and defense spending, which would get its funding from Biden-era energy and environment earmarks; and a much steeper bill to wrangle the spending reductions that would be needed to pay for tax cuts.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has said the House may be able to pass the measures by April — but the 218-215 margin Republicans hold will barely tolerate dissenters. Senate Republicans have a slightly more comfortable 53-47 majority.
President Trump, meanwhile, has so far left the specific strategy for his budget goals up to Congress.
“We’re looking at the one bill versus two bills, and whatever it is, it doesn’t matter,” Trump said when he returned to the U.S. Capitol early in January, ahead of his inauguration. “We’re going to get the result.”
