The United States House of Representatives passed its “One Big, Beautiful Bill”, which seeks to renew the tax cuts first enacted in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, a significant plank of President Donald Trump’s economic agenda. But coverage on the legacy media newscasts was mixed, at best.
Watch the related brief that aired on the CBS Evening News as part of its Evening News Roundup:
CBS EVENING NEWS
5/22/25
6:37 PM
JOHN DICKERSON: The session went past sunrise, but House Republicans approved President Trump's multi trillion dollar package of tax and spending cuts by a margin of just one vote. One member fell asleep, or the margin would likely have been two votes. It now goes to the Senate, where significant changes are expected.
The 18-second brief hit the main points: OBBB passed the House with a tight margin, and appears to be a heavier lift in the Senate. Those 18 seconds are 18 seconds more than were mustered by ABC, which made no time for OBBB on World News Tonight.
Now why is there this reluctance to cover the bill? There has certainly been a lot more interest in discussing matters such as tariffs and the stock market, compared to the passage of a bill that will bring economic certainty to millions of Americans. We get a hint on the NBC Nightly News:
LESTER HOLT: Now to that big win for President Trump. A sweeping bill with much of his domestic agenda passing the House.
That’s all it is. NBC’s report is imperfect, however, it is the most extensive among the legacy newscasts and acknowledges the matter as a “big win for President Trump.”
This, in all likelihood explains the media’s weird reluctance to cover passage of the One Big, Beautiful Bill. If Orange Man Bad, then a legislative win for him can't possibly be good.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on NBC Nightly News on Thursday, May 22nd, 2025:
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS
5/22/25
6:40 PM
LESTER HOLT: Now to that big win for President Trump. A sweeping bill with much of his domestic agenda passing the House. But tonight there's a new battle brewing with some Senate Republicans speaking out against it. Ryan Nobles has late details.
RYAN NOBLES: Tonight, a major victory for President Trump. His signature legislative package cleared a big hurdle, narrowly passing the House early this morning. Mike Johnson making good on a promise to pass the bill before the holiday weekend.
MIKE JOHNSON: The House has passed generational, truly nation-shaping legislation to reduce spending and permanently lower taxes for families and job creators.
NOBLES: The massive 1,000 page bill delivers a slew of President Trump's campaign promises, including extending $4.5 trillion in tax cuts passed in the first Trump Administration. Eliminating income taxes on tips and overtime. And provides billions of dollars in funding for the border wall and mass deportations. It also makes changes to Medicaid, imposing work requirements for the able-bodied adults without dependents to stay on the program. Democrats oppose, it saying it will lead to millions losing health coverage.
HAKEEM JEFFRIES: This day may very well turn out to be the day that House Republicans lost control of the United States House of representatives.
NOBLES: But the bill now faces a rocky path in the Republican-held Senate.
JOSH HAWLEY: The Senate’s going to want to put its own stamp on this. We’ll write our own version of the bill.
NOBLES: Senate Republicans can only lose two votes. And GOP senators are already saying the bill does not cut spending enough.
RON JOHNSON: We are stealing from our children and grandchildren. That's why there's no way I'm going to vote for this bill in this current form.
NOBLES: And lawmakers have set a goal of passing this bill out of the Senate by the 4th of July, but many senators today admitting that may be a bit of an ambitious timeline. Lester.
HOLT: Ryan Nobles, thank you.
