Congressional Democrats have been struggling since the beginning of the year to find an effective way to counter the second Trump administration as they debate what political message to embrace after their losses last November.
Now they have found a rallying point: the Republican tax cut and domestic policy bill, which G.O.P. leaders were laboring on Wednesday to put before the House after it narrowly passed the Senate on Tuesday. Democrats unanimously see it as a seriously flawed, even cruel, piece of legislation that would badly undermine the social safety net in the service of continuing tax cuts for the most affluent Americans.
They may still have serious internal divides, but not over this measure, which every Senate Democrat opposed. House Democrats are taking a similar line.
“Every single House Democrat will vote ‘hell no’ against this one big, ugly bill,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House Democratic leader, declared Wednesday morning at a party rally on the steps of the Capitol as the House moved toward debate on the measure.
Democrats see the debate as an opening to remind voters that they represent the party with a tradition of protecting lower-income working Americans who might lose their Medicaid health care or their nutrition assistance because of the legislation.
It is also clear that they see the legislation as central to their push to take back Congress next year. During the rally on the steps on Wednesday, top Democrats singled out by name potentially vulnerable House Republicans in California and Pennsylvania and pointedly enumerated how many of their constituents could lose health care and food assistance if the bill passes.
Dozens of Democrats later trooped to the House floor and took part in what is known in congressional parlance as a conga line, lining up to seek permission to offer changes to the bill. As expected, they were denied under the rules of debate. But the moment allowed each of them to frame their efforts as an attempt to protect Medicaid and nutrition assistance and chewed up floor time.
With Republicans having to take time to nail down support for the bill among their own anxious lawmakers, Democrats are getting more chances and procedural openings to attack the legislation. Democrats have also been able to cite criticism of it by Republicans such as Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who voted against the legislation Tuesday and assailed it on the floor in an oft-quoted speech.
The fight has particular resonance for many Democrats since they see the Republican bill as a backdoor attempt to undo much of the progress that has been made in getting more Americans covered by health insurance as a result of the Affordable Care Act, enacted by their party during the Obama administration.
“This is reversing that completely,” said Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Republicans have pushed back vigorously, noting that Democratic opposition equates to supporting a tax increase because, without congressional action, tax cuts enacted in 2017 would end. They say that Democrats are engaging in the politics of fear and distorting the impact of the legislation, which they argue is aimed mainly at eliminating waste and fraud and cutting benefits for able-bodied Americans who should work.
Though the measure is expected to ultimately pass, Democrats say they have found their voice and that Republicans will pay a political price for pushing the bill through at the behest of President Trump.
“This bill is a moral failure,” said Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, who urged Republicans to buck Mr. Trump and oppose it. “Find a spine,” he said. “Find a conscience.”
Carl Hulse is the chief Washington correspondent for The Times, primarily writing about Congress and national political races and issues. He has nearly four decades of experience reporting in the nation’s capital.
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