Author: Reuters

The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives narrowly passed a sweeping tax and spending bill that would enact much of President Donald Trump’s policy agenda on Thursday and saddle the country with trillions of dollars in debt.The bill would fulfill many of Trump’s populist campaign pledges, delivering new tax breaks on tips and car loans and boosting spending on the military and border enforcement. It will add about $3.8tn to the federal government’s $36.2tn in debt over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).What Trump called the “one big, beautiful bill” passed in a 215-214 vote, with all of the chamber’s Democrats and two Republicans voting against it. A third Republican voted “present”.The package must also win approval in the Republican-controlled Senate before Trump can sign it into law. The vote came after a marathon push that kept lawmakers debating the bill through two successive nights.The 1,000-page legislation would extend corporate and individual tax cuts passed in 2017 during Trump’s first term in office, cancel many green-energy incentives passed by Democratic former president Joe Biden, and tighten eligibility for health and food programs for the poor. It also would fund Trump’s crackdown on immigration, adding tens of thousands of border guards and creating the capacity to deport up to 1 million people each year.The bill passed despite growing concerns over the US debt, which has reached 124% of GDP, prompted a downgrade of the US’s top-notch credit rating by Moody’s last week.The US government has recorded budget deficits every year of this century, as Republican and Democratic administrations alike have failed to bring spending in alignment with revenue.Interest payments accounted for one out of every eight dollars spent by the US government last year, more than the amount spent on the military, according to the CBO. That share is due to grow to one out of every six dollars over the next 10 years as an ageing population pushes up the government’s health and pension costs, even if Trump’s budget bill is not taken into account.Investors, unnerved by the US’s fiscal standing and Trump’s erratic tariff moves, are increasingly selling the dollar and other US assets that make up the bedrock of the global financial system.“We’re not rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic tonight. We’re putting coal in the boiler and setting a course for the iceberg,” said Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, one of the two Republicans to vote against the bill.Debt ceiling deadlineRepublican supporters of the bill had argued that failure to pass it would have raised taxes for many American households. They also plan to use the bill to raise the federal government’s debt ceiling, a step Congress must take by summer or risk triggering a devastating default.“The success of the country depends on it,” Representative Stephanie Bice, an Oklahoma Republican, said on Wednesday. “These are pro-growth objectives that the president’s very in favor of, and so we’re moving forward.”With a narrow 220-212 majority, the House speaker, Mike Johnson, could not afford to lose more than a handful of votes from his side.
Republicans on the party’s right flank had pushed for deeper spending cuts to lessen the budget impact, but they met resistance from centrists who worried they would fall too heavily on the 71 million low-income Americans enrolled in the Medicaid health program.Johnson made changes to address conservatives’ concerns, pulling forward a new work requirements for Medicaid recipients to take effect at the end of 2026, two years earlier than before. That would kick several million people off the program, according to the CBO. The bill also would penalize states that expand Medicaid in the future.Johnson also expanded a deduction break for state and local tax payments, which was a priority for a handful of centrist Republicans who represent high-tax states like New York and California.Democrats blasted the bill as a disproportionately benefiting the wealthy while cutting benefits for working Americans. The CBO found it would reduce income for the poorest 10% of US households and boost income for the top 10%.“This bill is a scam, a tax scam designed to steal from you, the American people, and give to Trump’s millionaire and billionaire friends,” Democratic Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts said.The Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-47 majority, is not expected to take the bill up until early June. Top Senate Republicans have said that chamber may make significant changes to the bill before passing it.

Moderna said on Wednesday it had withdrawn an application seeking approval for its flu and Covid combination vaccine candidate after discussions with the US Food and Drug Administration.The company said it would resubmit the application later this year with vaccine efficacy data from a late-stage trial of its experimental seasonal influenza vaccine, which it expects to report this summer.The decision comes a day after the US FDA said it would require new clinical trials for approval of annual Covid-19 boosters for healthy people under 65 years.Shares of the company have been battered by declining Covid revenue as well as investor concerns spurred by the appointment of the vaccine skeptic Robert F Kennedy Jr as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.The shares fell another 1.4% in premarket trading on Wednesday.The FDA is due to make a decision on Moderna’s next-generation Covid-19 vaccine, which is a component of the combination flu-Covid shot, by the end of the month. Moderna has previously said it does not expect a delay in that decision.Moderna in early May pushed back the time frame for likely approval of its combination vaccine – meant to protect adults aged 50 and above against both Covid-19 and influenza – to 2026.The company has been banking on revenue from newer mRNA shots to make up for falling sales of its Covid vaccine and less-than-expected uptake of its respiratory syncytial virus vaccine, which sent its shares down nearly 60% last year.