The anti-LGBTQ+ “Freedom Caucus” in the U.S. House has threatened to sink President Donald Trump’s “one big beautiful bill” (OBBB) — barely nine days before Trump’s desired July 4 deadline — because it doesn’t do enough to reduce the federal deficit.

The House passed the bill last month by only one vote, and Freedom Caucus members say they’ll vote against changes that the Senate made to the legislation. The situation has left House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) asking the Senate to change very little, as any loss of House support could sink the bill’s passage.

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Interestingly, caucus members’ biggest issue with the bill isn’t its massive cuts to Medicaid benefits and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which will hurt their red state constituents, nor is the caucus primarily opposed to the fact that the bill is estimated to increase the deficit by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade, due largely to the bill’s huge reduction in tax revenue, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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Rather, Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-MD) said via X that he would vote “no” because “The currently proposed Senate version of the One Big Beautiful Bill weakens key House priorities – it doesn’t do enough to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid, it backtracks on the Green New Scam elimination included in the House bill, and it greatly increases the deficit – taking us even further from a balanced budget.”

In other words, Harris and his caucus feel the Senate bill doesn’t do enough to eliminate former President Joe Biden’s environmental policies, to make more tax cuts permanent, and doesn’t impose further restrictions on Medicaid benefits.

“If the Senate tries to jam the House with this version, I won’t vote ‘present.’ I’ll vote NO,” Harris added. “I can vote no as many times as it takes and for as long as it takes, to do something actually big and beautiful.”

Harris only voted “present” when the bill passed the House last month.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), the Freedom Caucus’ policy chair, wrote on X, “Rumor is Senate plans to jam the House with its weaker, unacceptable OBBB before 7/4. This is not a surprise but it would be a mistake. The bill in its current Senate form would… fail even a basic smell test… I would not vote for it as it is.”

Roy said the Senate bill is “not even close” to the reduced budget plan that House Speaker Johnson promised earlier this year.

Caucus member Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) wrote via X, “The watered-down OBBB is a joke: spending increases, delayed rollbacks of the Green New Scam, and no real Medicaid reform. If leadership tried to jam it through, I will vote NO. America deserves a serious bill, not another swamp product.”

Fellow caucus member, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) told Fox News, “There’s real problems with it. We’re on board with the president… but we’re concerned about the changes.”

Norman, however, stopped short of saying he’d no longer support the bill.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) criticized the Freedom Caucus Chair for threatening to oppose the bill.

“At the end of the day, if [Roy] votes against making the Trump tax cuts permanent, and against economic growth and against significant and serious reforms to IRA credits, reforms to Medicaid, I just don’t know how he lives with his own sort of conscience and votes ‘no,’” Kennedy said.

It’s unclear if the bill will even be able to pass the Senate, however, as it can only afford to lose three votes in the Republican party’s attempt to pass the bill with a simple majority using a reconciliation process.

Some of the bill’s provisions may also need to reach a 60-vote threshold to pass, meaning that seven Democratic senators would need to support them, the Senate parliamentarian recently announced.

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