Washington - Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.

Johnson advised reporters on Wednesday to raise the provisions on state and local tax (salt) deductions and enforce new Medicaid job requirements as he stared at the self-imposed deadline for Memorial Day weekend.

"I'm a firm believer that we can adjust the dial, so to speak, so we can come to an agreement that will meet the standards that everyone has and we can move forward with that."

“If you do more on salt, you have to find more savings. So these are the dials, metaphorical dials I’m talking about,” he said. “We try to do this in a deficit neutral way, and that’s what we’ve always made.”

Asked if Republicans will speed up Medicaid job requirements to extract greater savings in the revised plan, Johnson replied: “It’s all on the table.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La. Tell NBC News that Medicaid job requirements will be launched early in 2029, when the current bill will trigger them. Asked what the new timeframe is, Scalis said: "We don't have an exact date, but that's going to be earlier than the current bill."

This approach has the potential to win conservative hardliners who hope that the new Medicaid rules will take effect sooner.

"That's what works," said Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn.

Republicans say they made steady progress on the bill this week even as some key issues remain unresolved. Now 11 House committees have passed part of legislation that will send them to the Budget Committee to piece them together into a parcel as early as Friday.

However, several Republicans in the group expressed doubts about emerging plans, including RSS.C. Ralph Norman, Chip Roy, R-Texas and R-Okla. Chip Roy, R-Texas and Josh Brecheen. Quote questions with salt expenditure and uncertainty levels. Republicans can only lose one vote on the Budget Committee for the bill to be ahead of schedule.

"At this point, I'm still in the budget case," Norman said Thursday afternoon after the Republican meeting. "We still have a spending issue. We have a deficit problem. ”

Roy said he was also "no", insisting that Medicaid job requirements take effect immediately.

Throughout the House, Johnson could only afford three Republican defections in the last bill, so even small factions such as the Salt Caucus had huge power in negotiations. These members also tend to come from key battlefield areas that will determine the balance of power in the next election.

But it is clear that the approach will work, as the ghost of more direct Medicaid cuts may alienate other politically vulnerable Republicans who have been heated up by the bill's existing spending cuts and restrictions on health care programs.

Both sides remained far away on Thursday, and Johnson said he expected talks to be extended to the weekend, even as he fell into a Memorial Day deadline to pass massive tax cuts, energy and border packaging in the House of Commons. The salt problem has also been in tensions indoors within the Republican Party throughout the week, with cracks even among pro-salt members, namely whether to make an offer to raise the $10,000 cap to $30,000.

But moderates and conservatives emerged from Johnson's office, their two-hour meeting was positive and neither party drew the red line.

“We are still working hard.” Rep. Mike Lawler, a member of the Salt Caucus, Middle Rep. Mike Lawler (RN.Y. “The most important thing is that (the taller salt cap) will be on the bill and we will work hard to solve.”

Conservative Rep. Byron Donalds added: “The core issue is that if the salt cap rises, you have to find more money.”

But such a deal could cause problems with the Rubik's Cube for House Republicans. While deeper Medicaid and greater salt reductions may be a delicious trade for dozens of hard pay and a handful of blue state members, it may bring painful taste to others – most notably politically vulnerable members. Republicans chose to oppose the most compelling cuts of healthcare programs, but their current proposals would still result in 8.6 million people losing coverage, according to early estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

It is unclear that Johnson has voted through existing Medicaid cuts, which include new job requirements and many more stringent qualification checks and paperwork, which critics say will put a heavy burden on legitimate recipients.

R-Calif's Rep. David Valadao, who has the highest share of Medicaid recipients in any Republican-occupied area, said his existing Medicaid rules have not been determined.

"I haven't looked at the details yet, so we're still going through it and seeing the actual impact," he said.

Freshman Rep. Rob Bresnahan, who nearly flipped Democratic-controlled areas last year, also said he has not yet taken a stance on Medicaid rules.

Rep. Don Bacon, another fragile Republican in Nebraska, said he would “adapt” to the date when Medicaid began.

Valadao, Bresnahan and Bacon all represent dozens of Republican swing districts that Democrats target homes next year. They believe Medicaid is their most powerful problem, believing that existing bills will cause suffering among vulnerable groups.

"The self-proclaimed moderates have spent months making the wrong commitment to the American people that they will draw a red line with Medicaid cuts. Now, they want to trigger these cuts by the medium term? Good barriers."

Meanwhile, some conservatives say they are reluctant to spend more money to provide salt to people in high-tax blue states. Rep. Beth van Duyne, a fiscal hawk who attended Thursday's meeting, said entering the Speaker's office, she thought it was "hard" to raise the salt hat.

But R-Fla is not attending the conference. "If we land on the plane, it will be because of Trump," said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna.

“President Trump is essentially responsible for all deals in the House,” she said.