The US House of Representatives has approved Donald Trump's budget bill, better known as the 'Big, Beautiful Bill'. A major political victory, says our correspondent Thomas De Graeve. The president will now sign the bill today on the national holiday.

US President Donald Trump can be satisfied: his 'Big, Beautiful Bill' has now also been approved in the House of Representatives. Earlier this week, this already happened (closely) in the Senate. In the House, too, it was quite close: 218 for, 214 against. In the end, 2 Republicans voted against, as did all Democrats.

The budget bill includes the president's most important domestic program points. It addresses many issues that Trump had promised during the election campaign.

Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was determined to get the budget bill through Congress so that Trump could sign it by July 4 at the latest - today. That is when Americans celebrate 'Independence Day' or 'The Fourth of July'. A symbolic day to show off this very important law for Trump.

The White House has already said that Trump will sign the bill into law today at a"big and beautiful ceremony" at 5 p.m. local time,"as the president has always said and hoped."

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Thomas De Graeve: "Yesterday it was still a bit exciting, but it was no surprise that the law was approved"

Trump owes much of the House passage of the bill to Johnson and Minnesota Republican Representative Tom Emmer. They worked through the night to convince their colleagues to vote with him.

The Republicans do have a majority in the House, but it is too narrow to work comfortably. Johnson had to convince enough party members.

National Debt and Medicaid

Several Republicans are concerned about the rising national debt that accompanies the budget law. According to the nonpartisan accounting agency Congressional Budget Office, it would increase by 3.3 trillion dollars within 10 years because of the 'Big, Beautiful Bill'.

According to (Republican) opponents, this goes against the mission of DOGE, which was created by Trump to reduce government debt.

Protest against Medicaid cuts included in the 'Big, Beautiful Bill'.

In addition, politicians are questioning the cuts Trump wants to make to Medicaid, the government program that provides health insurance to low-income families.

According to the bill, people who use that program would have to prove that they work or study at least 80 hours a month. Access to insurance under the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare, ed.) would also be tightened.

Medicaid cuts will hit many Republican states. In Louisiana, Arkansas, West Virginia and Kentucky, for example, more than 25 percent of citizens would be in the program.

In addition, many states would see massive job losses due to the cuts. Louisiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Oregon and New Mexico would be hit particularly hard, according to calculations by The Century Foundation.

Record speech

Democrats spent the night and morning attacking Republicans who would vote for the bill."Republicans who are attacking the health and well-being of ordinary Americans should be deeply ashamed," said House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Jeffries broke a record with his speech in the House. He used the 'magic minute' principle, which gives him the opportunity as Democratic leader in the House to speak for as long as he wants.

He spoke for a whopping 8 hours and 44 minutes straight, in an attempt to hold up a vote on the bill for as long as possible.

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Hakeem Jeffries Breaks Record for Longest House Speech

Jeffries broke the record set by Republican Kevin McCarthy, who spoke for 8 hours and 32 minutes four years ago. When Jeffries broke the record, House Democrats stood up and applauded their party leader.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson responded coolly to the record in his (much shorter) speech afterward."It takes a lot longer to construct a lie than it does to tell the simple truth," he said.