'Thanks for Playing': Ways and Means Clears Key Hurdle for Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill'

By Susie Moore | 9:20 AM on May 14, 2025

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While President Donald Trump is busy in the Middle East, his "big beautiful bill" just took a big step forward after the Ways and Means Committee advanced the tax portion of the bill.

Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) chairs the Committee and has been keeping us apprised of their progress. On Friday, we saw signs that Smith's meeting with Trump at the White House had gone well.

.@JakeSherman pic.twitter.com/ToTTbv2oZh
— Rep. Jason Smith (@RepJasonSmith) May 9, 2025

On Tuesday, Ways and Means held a marathon (17-hour) meeting, which featured plenty of obstructionism by the Democrats, who apparently are hellbent on cutting off America's nose to spite its face.

We are in hour 14 of a markup where Democrats are fighting tooth and nail to prevent American families from receiving much needed tax relief.

77 million Americans spoke loud and clear in support of the policies in this One, Big, Beautiful Bill. We're going to get this done, and…
— Rep. Jason Smith (@RepJasonSmith) May 14, 2025

Smith, who posted regular updates of the session, at Hour 14, noted:

We are in hour 14 of a markup where Democrats are fighting tooth and nail to prevent American families from receiving much needed tax relief.
77 million Americans spoke loud and clear in support of the policies in this One, Big, Beautiful Bill. We're going to get this done, and Americans will remember who stood in the way.

Finally, though, they got it done.

The House Ways and Means Committee advanced a slew of President Trump’s top tax priorities, Wednesday morning, setting the stage for a high-stakes sprint to get the provisions through the GOP’s razor-thin majority.
The panel advanced the legislation — which is part of the party’s package containing Trump’s legislative agenda — in a party-line 26-19 vote following an hours-long, overnight meeting that featured heated debate, scores of Democratic-led amendments, all of which were rejected, and ample estimates of the impact of the proposed policy.
The tax bill now heads to the House Budget Committee, which is tasked with combining all the portions of the Trump agenda bill into one package in advance of its consideration in the entire chamber.
The tax legislation, which spans 389 pages, makes the 2017 income tax rates permanent — a top priority for Trump and congressional Republicans — implements some of the president’s campaign promises including no tax on tips or overtime through 2028, and temporarily increases the child tax credit, among several other provisions.

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There's still a long way to go — as noted, the bill will now head to the Budget Committee, which has the unenviable task of trying to stitch all the pieces of the package together before it's considered by the full House.

And there remain sticking points — the state and local tax (SALT) deduction being a significant one. Still, this was a big step forward.

And Smith rightly took a small victory lap Wednesday morning.