Debate underway in Senate on Trump's big bill

Time of India

5 hours ago

Debate is underway in the Senate for an all-night session Sunday, with Republicans wrestling President Donald
Trump
's big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts over mounting Democratic opposition - and even some brake-pumping over the budget slashing by the president himself.
The outcome from the weekend of work in the Senate remains uncertain and highly volatile. GOP leaders are rushing to meet Trump's July 4 deadline to pass the package, but they barely secured enough support to muscle it past a procedural hurdle in a tense scene the day before.
A handful of Republican holdouts revolted, and it took phone calls from Trump and a visit from Vice President J D Vance to keep it on track.
GOP Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina announced Sunday he would not seek reelection after Trump badgered him for saying he could not vote for the bill with its steep Medicaid cuts.
A new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that 11.8 million more
Americans
would become uninsured by 2034 if the bill became law. It also said the package would increase the deficit by nearly USD 3.3 trillion over the decade.
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But other Senate Republicans, along with conservatives in the House, are pushing for steeper cuts, particularly to healthcare, drawing their own unexpected warning from Trump.
"Don't go too crazy!" the president posted on social media. "REMEMBER, you still have to get reelected."
All told, the Senate bill includes some USD 4 trillion in tax cuts, making permanent Trump's 2017 rates, which would expire at the end of the year if Congress fails to act, while adding the new ones he campaigned on, including no taxes on tips.
The Senate package would roll back billions in green energy tax credits that Democrats warn will wipe out wind and solar investments nationwide, and impose USD 1.2 trillion in cuts, largely to Medicaid and food stamps, by imposing work requirements and making sign-up eligibility more stringent.
Additionally, the bill would provide a USD 350 billion infusion for border and national security, including for deportations, some of it paid for with new fees charged to immigrants.
If the Senate can push through overnight voting and pass the bill, it would need to return to the House. Speaker Mike Johnson has told lawmakers to be on call for a return to Washington this coming week.
Democrats ready to fight all night
Unable to stop the march toward passage of the 940-page bill, the Democrats as the minority party in Congress is using the tools at its disposal to delay and drag out the process.
Democrats forced a full reading of the text, which took some 16 hours, ending Sunday afternoon. Then senators took over the debate, filling the chamber with speeches, while Republicans largely stood aside.
"Reckless and irresponsible," said Senator Gary Peters of Michigan.
"A gift to the billionaire class," said Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Senator Patty Murray, the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, raised particular concern about the accounting method being used by the Republicans, which says the tax breaks from Trump's first term, in 2017, are now "current policy" and the cost of extending them should not be counted toward deficits.
"In my 33 years here in the United States Senate, things have never - never - worked this way," said Murray, the longest-serving Democrat on the Budget Committee.
She said that kind of "magic math" won't fly with Americans trying to balance their own household books.
"Go back home and try that game with your constituents," she said. "We still need to kick people off their health care - that's too expensive. We still need to close those hospitals - we have to cut costs. And we still have to kick people off SNAP - because the debt is out of control."
Sanders said Tillis' decision not to seek reelection shows the hold that Trump's cult of personality has over the GOP.
"We are literally taking food out of the mouths of hungry kids," Sanders said, while giving tax breaks to Jeff Bezos and other wealthy billionaires.
GOP leaders unphased
Republicans are using their majorities to push aside Democratic opposition, and appeared undeterred, even as they have run into a series of political and policy setbacks.
"We're going to pass the 'Big, beautiful bill," said Senator Lindsey Graham, the Budget Committee chairman.
"And President Trump is going to sign it."
The holdout Republicans remain reluctant to give their votes, and their leaders have almost no room to spare, given their narrow majorities. Essentially, they can afford three dissenters in the Senate, with its 53-47 GOP edge, and about as many in the House, if all members are present and voting.
Trump, who has at times allowed wiggle room on his deadline, kept the pressure on lawmakers to finish.
He threatened to campaign against Tillis, who was worried that Medicaid cuts would leave many without healthcare in his state.
Trump badgered Tillis again on Sunday morning, saying the senator "has hurt the great people of North Carolina."
Later Sunday, Tillis issued a lengthy statement announcing he would not seek reelection in 2026.