President Donald Trump used the White House's Fourth of July celebrations as the backdrop for his final victory lap over his massive spending bill. The President signed the legislation, which will bring massive cuts to government benefits such as Medicaid and increase funding for immigration enforcement, during the White House's military family picnic on Friday evening.
"We're adding things like the biggest tax cut in the history of our country, a child tax credit. So many things are being added that we wouldn't even have time to discuss them when we were doing it," he said.
Trump pushed Congress to pass the bill by July 4th as some Republicans held out over several issues, including the bill's effect on the debt ceiling.
"It includes the largest tax cut in American history, the largest spending cut $1.7 trillion. And yet you won't even notice it. Just waste, fraud and abuse in American history," he said in a speech from the White House.
Democrats criticized the President and the bill's supporters over its cuts to services that help the poorest Americans. The bill institutes work requirements for Medicaid that some experts say will make millions of Americans uninsured, and makes cuts to the program that will result in closures of health centers in rural areas, according to health care employers.
