Rebel GOP lawmakers negotiate with White House, but won't guarantee passage of Trump's ‘One, Big Beautiful Bill’

The call for unity from Donald Trump doesn't seem to have softened the Republican representatives who joined Democrats in knocking down the president's "One, Big Beautiful Bill" in the slightest. Although negotiations with the White House team have continued over the weekend, the rebels continue to insist that their demands on spending be met in order to allow the bill to continue on its way to the Senate.

That was pointed out forcefully Chip Roy, of Texas, in his interview with Steve Bannon last Saturday. Roy wanted to make it clear that rebel representatives "we are fully engaged. We want to deliver," but that there are certain points in the bill that are pernicious to taxpayers.

Roy indicated that, given his interest in moving the bill forward, he has continued working in his office over the weekend, and that there have even been meetings with the White House to try to bring positions closer together.

The "New Green Scam" and Medicaid, the main stumbling blocks

First, according to the representatives' studies, the bill would not contribute to deficit moderation or reduction over the next decade as currently written. The main stumbling blocks for this group appear in the spending contained in the rule as it relates to Medicaid, which it labeled "money laundering," and to what they call "New Green Scam."

Regarding the latter, Roy claimed that despite the fact that “The President campaigned on terminating it, ending it right out of the gate. And the truth is, as we started peeling it back, a lot of the projects are able to go and a lot of the funding to all of these green New Deal programs continue in perpetuity.”

Thus, according to his analysis, "there were $400 billion worth of continued flows for all of the Green New Deal projects that were put online that weren't even touched and then there was areas where new projects could start if they got started in the next three or four years."

"Much to do..."

Although Roy and the others point out that "there's a lot of good" in the bill, they say it's not enough. The Texas representative reiterated this point on X in response to an interview with Speaker Mike Johnson, describing the benefits of the stalled bill: