WASHINGTON (AP) — Following a tumultuous midnight session, Senate Republicans narrowly defeated Democratic and GOP resistance to pass President Donald Trump’s tax giveaways and spending cuts plan on Tuesday.
To push it over the top, Vice President JD Vance broke a 50/50 tie. Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina were the three Republicans who opposed the plan.
The conclusion, which left the president’s main legislative objective on the verge of approval or collapse, concluded an exceptionally stressful weekend of labor at the Capitol.
Republicans, who control the majority in Congress, are anticipated to continue to struggle to get the bill to this point. Now that the package is returned to the House, Speaker Mike Johnson cautioned senators against making significant changes to what his chamber had already authorized. However, as they scramble to complete before Trump’s Fourth of July deadline, the Senate did make amendments, especially to Medicaid, running the possibility of further issues.
The outcome marks a turning point for the president and his party, who have dedicated their political resources to implementing the GOP’s sweep of power in Washington and have been engrossed in the 940-page One Big Beautiful Bill Act, as it is officially known.
As he left the White House for Florida, Trump admitted that the situation was extremely complex.
“I don’t want to make too many cuts,” he stated. Cuts bother me.
Vote-a-rama, the term for the normal but tiresome day of voting on amendments, turned into a 24-hour grind as Republican leaders bought time to boost support.
The frantic efforts to steady the bill were belied by the chamber’s monotonous roll calls. In the midst of fatigue, horrible scenes unfolded both on and off the Senate floor.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota was frantically trying to reach last-minute agreements between his most conservative side, which wants even more drastic cuts to keep deficits from skyrocketing as a result of the tax cuts, and those in his party who are concerned that the bill’s Medicaid cuts will leave millions without care.
With slim majorities, the GOP leaders are at a loss. Paul, who is against raising the debt ceiling by $5 trillion, and Tillis, who warned that millions of Americans will lose access to Medicaid health care, have already expressed opposition to Thune losing more than three Republican senators.
A loose coalition of four conservative GOP senators pushed for even more drastic cuts, and attention soon shifted to two important senators, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Collins, who both voiced worries about health care cuts.
The GOP leadership sat next to Murkowski for discussions, focusing their attention on her in particular. For over an hour, she and other people were gathered together in the back of the room, making notes on papers.
After Paul returned from a visit to Thune’s office with an incredible offer that might earn his vote, all eyes were on him. According to two people who were granted anonymity to discuss the private conversation, he had proposed significantly reducing the bill’s rise in the debt ceiling.
New York Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer claimed that Republicans are in ruins because they are aware of how unpopular the measure is.
According to a neutral Congressional Budget Office report, if the bill were to pass into law, 11.8 million more Americans would lack health insurance by 2034. According to the CBO, the package would raise the deficit by around $3.3 trillion over the course of ten years.
And billionaire Elon Musk was once again attacking Republicans on social media as the PORKY PIG PARTY! for putting the $5 trillion debt ceiling in the package, which is necessary to enable further borrowing to cover the bills.
Senators insist on changes
In both the House and the Senate, few Republicans were entirely content with the final product.
Collins’ amendment failed despite her proposal to increase the planned rural hospital fund from $25 billion to $50 billion, offset by a higher tax rate on individuals earning above $25 million annually.
Additionally, while Murkowski was pushing to strengthen federal reimbursements to hospitals in Alaska and other states that did not adhere to legislative rules, she was also attempting to gain measures to save individuals in her state from some food stamp cuts, which seemed to be accepted.
When asked how she would vote, Murkowski responded, “Radio silence.”
Near midnight, conservative senators Rick Scott of Florida, Mike Lee of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming came into Thune’s office, demanding a vote on even more drastic health care reforms.
What s in the big bill
According to the most recent CBO analysis, the Senate bill ultimately includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, including the new ones he campaigned on, such as no tip taxes, and permanentizing Trump’s 2017 rates, which would expire at the end of the year if Congress does nothing.
Democrats fear that the Senate measure would eliminate billions of dollars in green energy tax credits, wiping out investments in solar and wind power across the country. Through stricter sign-up eligibility requirements, changes to federal subsidies to states, and work requirements for able-bodied individuals, including some parents and older Americans, it would impose $1.2 trillion in cuts, mostly to Medicaid and food stamps.
The package would also fund $350 billion for border and national security, including deportations, with some of that money coming from new fees that immigrants would have to pay.
Democrats fighting all day and night
The Democrats attempted to delay the process, including by reading the entire bill over the weekend, but were unable to halt the bill’s progress toward passage.
While hardly none of the Democratic amendments were passing, some Republicans did support some of them. One of the longer sessions of its type in modern times regarded more.
A clause that prohibited states from regulating artificial intelligence if they get specific federal funds was removed by an amendment that was unanimously passed.
The Republicans’ accounting approach, which maintains that the tax breaks from Trump’s first term are now standard policy and that the expense of extending them shouldn’t be included in deficit calculations, particularly alarmed Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee.
She claimed that Americans attempting to balance their own household budgets would not be amenable to that sort of magic math.
