NPR’s Leila Fadel asks Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, co-founder of the Home Freedom Caucus, about how the conservative group regards the Trump-backed megabill now that it is returning after Senate passage.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The passage of the tax and spending invoice within the Home might hinge on getting essentially the most fiscally conservative wing of the Republican Occasion totally on board, the Freedom Caucus. That was co-founded by Consultant Jim Jordan of Ohio and he joins us now. Good morning, and welcome to this system.
JIM JORDAN: Thanks for having me.
FADEL: I need to begin with what we simply heard there. Is that this invoice a political danger for the Republicans? Are you on board, and do you intend to vote for it?
JORDAN: I do plan to vote for it. I believe it’s good laws. I’ve stated many occasions, you realize it is a good invoice as a result of the left hates it, and the left hates it as a result of it truly empowers folks, empowers households, does not empower authorities. And Mara Liasson was simply speaking about how, you realize, she thought it could damage working households.
I believe it helps working households ‘trigger it lets them hold extra of their cash. It says that we’re additionally going to construct into the tax code a college selection element, which is whole dad or mum empowerment, serving to them determine the place they’ll ship their child to get the most effective training. After which I believe it is also truthful to taxpayers in that it says, we will have a piece requirement.
Should you’re an able-bodied grownup and also you’re getting assist from the taxpayers in one among our social welfare packages, then you are going to should work. And that’s simply good frequent sense.
FADEL: It is not simply the left, although, that has criticisms of this invoice. There are Republicans who’ve issues across the cuts to Medicaid, and there are additionally Republicans inside your caucus which have actual issues about the truth that the deficit will develop over the subsequent…
JORDAN: Yeah.
FADEL: …Decade, in response to the Congressional Finances Workplace. I imply, do you need to see it reworked to handle this? As a result of I do know you particularly are very involved about debt and the nation’s rising debt.
JORDAN: Properly, I want we had been chopping extra and saving extra, however you must have a look at the lay of the land. We received a three-seat majority within the Senate. We received a small majority within the Home. In an effort to get the votes collectively to go one thing, you bought to present, and that is, I believe, the very best place we might get, as evidenced by the truth that you solely received – it was a 50/50 tie and, after all, the vp needed to break the tie within the Senate.
FADEL: Proper.
JORDAN: And two of the three who voted towards it had been voting towards it from not as a result of it did not lower sufficient and save sufficient and assist with the deficits within the debt, they voted towards it for what, you realize, folks would name reasonable or extra liberal causes in…
(CROSSTALK)
FADEL: Over cuts to Medicaid as a result of there are issues it’s going to lower – about 12 million persons are anticipated to lose insurance coverage over the onerous paperwork underneath this invoice. That was the priority there. However, you realize, we heard out of your colleague, Congressman Andy Harris of Maryland, on Fox Information lately, and I simply need to play you what he stated.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ANDY HARRIS: We help the president’s agenda. The president’s agenda was to not elevate the deficit by three-quarters of a trillion {dollars} over the subsequent 10 years. The underside line is now the Home goes to have its say. This isn’t going to sail via the Home. We will have to barter with the Senate yet one more time, and that is simply applicable. That is the way in which the legislative course of works and the way in which it ought to work on a invoice of this dimension.
FADEL: Are you having conversations with Congressman Harris about this, and do you need to see some remodeling or will the Home be capable to go it with out that?
JORDAN: I am hopeful that we are able to go it. I’ve had conversations with Chairman Harris and different members of the Freedom Caucus and simply members of our whole convention – Republican convention. However I believe this invoice’s – and I look generally at simply who voted for it. I imply, Senator Johnson, Senator Lee, Senator Lummis, Senator Scott, Senator Cruz, every kind of conservative senators voted for this package deal.
It is fairly darn good. It cuts taxes for households. It has a piece requirement for able-bodied adults in our welfare system. It says that we’re going to ensure there are assets to maintain our borders safe, and it additionally builds within the college selection element in our tax code. These are elementary Republican positions.
Any a kind of positions in and of themselves, by themselves, we’d vote for that laws. However in some way, when it is put collectively in an enormous package deal, you will have individuals who do not need to vote for it as a result of it does not lower sufficient spending. As I stated earlier than, I want we had been lowering spending extra.
However general, it is a good piece of laws that does precisely what we instructed the voters we had been going to do once we ran for the job final November.
FADEL: Jim Jordan is a Republican member of the Home from Ohio and a co-founder of the Home Freedom Caucus.
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional info.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts might range. Transcript textual content could also be revised to right errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org could also be edited after its unique broadcast or publication. The authoritative report of NPR’s programming is the audio report.
