Congress Stuck Debating Tanning Bed Taxes as Conservatives Threaten a Revolt on the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’

Just hours before the House is due to vote on President Trump’s “one big beautiful bill,” the Freedom Caucus is rolling a grenade into negotiations, saying that Speaker Johnson has not done nearly enough to limit deficit spending. As those conservatives head to last-minute negotiations at the White House, other lawmakers are left debating the repeal of tanning bed taxes. For weeks, the speaker has been trying to find a balance between conservative demands for spending cuts and moderate demands that specific tax credits and deductions — as well as Medicaid — be protected. Now, the House hardliners say the speaker has done too much to appease the big spenders in their own party. The House Rules Committee is still meeting to consider the bill. That panel convened at 1 a.m. Wednesday, though no resolution has been reached because Mr. Johnson has so far failed to include a “manager’s amendment” that will detail his new changes to the legislation. Because of the speaker’s lack of action, Democrats and Republicans alike are drawing out the process, giving the opposition party time to point out some of the sillier aspects of the “one big beautiful bill.”A Democrat on the Rules Committee, Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández, asked the chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, Congressman Jason Smith, to read a passage from his tax bill during the hearing — something he refused to do. Another Democratic witness, Congresswoman Gwen Moore, then read a small provision from the legislation, which would repeal excise taxes on tanning beds if it is passed. “This is amazing,” Ms. Leger Fernández exclaimed at the idea. “They’re repealing an excise tax on tanning beds! They’re repealing a tax on silencers. If you have a tanning bed, you get a little bit of a tax break, and if you need a hospital bed in rural America, I’m sorry: You’re outta luck,” she said with a laugh. Meanwhile, conservatives in the House are in private meetings with leadership. They are also expected to meet with the president and the speaker at the White House this afternoon. The chairman of the Freedom Caucus, Congressman Andy Harris, told Newsmax on Wednesday morning that the negotiations with Mr. Johnson are headed in the wrong direction. “This bill actually got worse overnight. There is no way it passes today,” Mr. Harris — who is headed to the White House to meet with Mr. Trump — said Wednesday. “We may need a couple of weeks to iron everything out, but it’s not going anywhere today.”“We’ll get to the deal, we’re just not at it today,” he added. Conservatives have so far voiced a host of reasons for rejecting the bill in its current form. Reimbursement rates for states’ Medicaid spending is too high, they argue. Conservatives say the Inflation Reduction Act tax credits for green energy also aren’t phased out quickly enough. In the last 24 hours, it seems they’re growing even more concerned about the speaker’s side deal with a number of New York and blue state Republicans who want a lift in the State and Local Tax deduction cap. On Tuesday, a leader of the self-described “SALT-y” Republicans, Congressman Nick LaLota, told the Sun that he and GOP leadership were getting closer to an agreement. “Fortunately, folks are finally talking on this issue,” Mr. LaLota says. “We talked numbers. I’m not sure if we can officially consider it an offer, but we did talk … better numbers than we [talked about] before.”Mr. Johnson has already offered the SALT caucus a hike in the deduction cap to $40,000 from the current $10,000. A sticking point for the group, however, is that the deduction is phased out for couples that make $750,000 or more. That deduction cap offer from Mr. Johnson would reduce federal revenues by hundreds of billions of dollars, and so far, the SALT caucus has come up with no explanation for how they will make up for that shortfall. “Look, they have high home values. There are reasons, and I get it, and they view it through the lens of double-taxation,” another Freedom Caucus member, Congressman Chip Roy, told the Wall Street Journal in a podcast interview on Tuesday. “Now you’re backing off of that, which puts us in a fiscal hole, so you gotta figure out how you can truly pay for it.”“On a principle basis, we shouldn’t be subsidizing high-tax jurisdictions,” Mr. Roy said. Despite these objections from conservatives, the White House is digging in. On Wednesday, the administration called a vote against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act “the ultimate betrayal.”“The One Big Beautiful Bill Act reflects the shared priorities of both Congress and the Administration. Therefore, the House of Representatives should immediately pass this bill to show the American people that they are serious about ‘promises made, promises kept,’” the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement of administration policy on Wednesday. “President Trump is committed to keeping his promises, and failure to pass this bill would be the ultimate betrayal.”

Congress Stuck Debating Tanning Bed Taxes as Conservatives Threaten a Revolt on the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’

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