Senate Republicans scrambling to pass tax-and-spend bill by Trump deadline

The Guardian

16 hours ago

The US Senate is preparing for a key procedural vote Saturday as Republicans race to pass Donald Trump's package of tax breaks, spending cuts and bolstered deportation funds by his Fourth of July deadline.
Republicans are using their majorities in Congress to push aside Democratic opposition, but they have run into a series of political and policy setbacks. Not all Republican senators are on board with proposals to reduce spending on Medicaid, food stamps and other programs as a way to help cover the cost of extending some $3.8tn in Trump tax breaks.
Before the expected vote to advance the measure, the White House released a statement saying it 'strongly supports passage' of the bill that 'implements critical aspects' of the president's agenda. Trump himself was at his golf course in Virginia on Saturday with Republican senators, including one of the holdouts, Rand Paul of Kentucky.
'It's time to get this legislation across the finish line,' the Senate majority leader, John Thune, said.
The 940-page bill was released shortly before midnight Friday, and senators are expected to grind through the days ahead with hours of potentially all-night debate and countless amendments. Senate passage could be days away, and the bill would need to return to the House for a final round of votes before it could reach the White House.
With the narrow Republican majorities in the House and Senate, leaders need almost every lawmaker on board in the face of essentially unified opposition from Democrats.
Elon Musk, the billionaire Trump donor who came out in strong opposition to the House version of the bill, denounced the Senate draft on his social media platform, X, on Saturday. 'The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!' Musk wrote above a comment from a green energy expert who pointed out that the bill raises taxes on new wind and solar projects.
'Utterly insane and destructive,' Musk added. 'It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.'
Bernie Moreno, the Republican senator from Ohio, opened the day's session with an impassioned defense of the package that he said had been misrepresented by its critics. 'Read it for yourself,' he said.
Senate Democrats intend to do just that, with the minority leader, Chuck Schumer, announcing on social media Saturday afternoon that his party will force the entire bill to be read aloud before a final vote on passage can take place.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Schumer said Republicans had released the bill 'in the dead of night' and were rushing to pass it before the public fully knows what's in it.
The weekend session could be a make-or-break moment for Trump's party, which has invested much of its political capital on his signature domestic-policy plan. Trump is pushing Congress to wrap it up, even as he sometimes gives mixed signals, allowing for more time.
At recent events at the White House, including on Friday, Trump has admonished the 'grandstanders' among GOP holdouts to fall in line.
'We can get it done,' Trump said in a social media post. 'It will be a wonderful Celebration for our Country.'
The legislation is an ambitious but complicated series of GOP priorities. At its core, it would make permanent many of the tax breaks from Trump's first term that would otherwise expire by year's end if Congress fails to act, resulting in a potential tax increase on Americans. The bill would add new breaks, including no taxes on tips, and commit $350bn to national security, including for Trump's mass deportation agenda.
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But the spending cuts that Republicans are relying on to offset the lost tax revenues are causing dissent within the GOP ranks. Some lawmakers say the cuts go too far, particularly for people receiving healthcare through Medicaid. Meanwhile, conservatives worried about the nation's debt are pushing for steeper cuts.
Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, said he remains concerned about the fundamentals of the package and will not support the procedural motion to begin debate. Rand Paul has opposed the measure on the grounds that it will raise the nation's debt limit by $5tn. And Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican pushing for deeper cuts, said he needed to see the final legislative text.
The release of that draft had been delayed as the Senate parliamentarian reviewed the bill to ensure it complied with the chamber's strict 'Byrd rule', which bars policy matters from inclusion in budget bills unless a provision can get 60 votes to overcome objections. That would be a tall order in a Senate with a 53-47 Republican edge, and Democrats unified against Trump's bill.
Republicans suffered a series of setbacks after several proposals were determined to be out of compliance by the chief arbiter of the Senate's rules. One plan would have shifted some food stamp costs from the federal government to the states; a second would have gutted the funding structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But over the past days, Republicans have quickly revised those proposals and reinstated them.
The final text includes a proposal for cuts to a Medicaid provider tax that had run into parliamentary objections and opposition from several senators worried about the fate of rural hospitals. The new version extends the start date for those cuts and establishes a $25bn fund to aid rural hospitals and providers.
Most states impose the provider tax as a way to boost federal Medicaid reimbursements. Some Republicans argue that is a scam and should be abolished.
The nonpartisan congressional budget office has said that under the House-passed version of the bill, some 10.9 million more people would go without healthcare and at least 3 million fewer would qualify for food aid. The CBO has not yet publicly assessed the Senate draft, which proposes steeper reductions. Top income-earners would see about a $12,000 tax cut under the House bill, while the package would cost the poorest Americans $1,600, the CBO said.