Latest news with #TrumpBill
Fox News
5 hours ago
- Business
- Fox News
Schumer, Democrats plot coordinated resistance to Trump's 'one ugly bill'
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is coordinating with his colleagues in the House to push back against Senate Republicans' efforts to ram President Donald Trump's wish list of policy desires through the Senate. In a letter to Senate Democrats on Sunday, Schumer, D-N.Y., laid out a multipronged strategy to inflict as much pain on Republicans as possible in the budget reconciliation process, the legislative strategy the GOP is employing to sidestep negotiating with Democrats to advance the president's priorities. While congressional Republicans don't need Democrats to move the colossal bill to Trump's desk, Schumer wants to make the process as uncomfortable as possible as Senate Republicans begin a roughly monthlong sprint to put their fingerprints on what Trump deemed a "big, beautiful bill." The top Senate Democrat is coordinating with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and the top Democrats on crucial House committees to "share firsthand insight from their process and key Republican fault lines" with their Senate counterparts. "Based on Senate Republicans' public comments, it's clear that if this reckless reconciliation bill passes the Senate it is very likely to contain changes, forcing it to be sent back to the House of Representatives," Schumer wrote. "That's why we must be united with our House Democratic colleagues to fight this assault on working families." Indeed, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said much of the debate and subsequent tweaks to the bill would focus on finding deeper spending cuts. The House's offering set a goal of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade, but some Senate Republicans want to hit $2 trillion, while a smaller cohort of fiscal hawks want to go even deeper. Thune said that Republicans' main focus during the next month would be ensuring that Trump's first-term tax cuts are made permanent with the massive bill and not allowed to expire by the end of the year on the Senate floor, marking the Senate's return on Monday. "We are not going to let that happen, and our biggest focus this month is completing this tax relief legislation with the goal of getting the final bill to the president before the Fourth of July," he said. "It's going to be a very busy month, Mr. President." In all, 10 Senate committees will be tasked with sifting through the massive bill's contents, which include the president's policy desires on taxes, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt. Schumer's edict comes as those committees gear up to make their own revisions to the bill to, in part, fall in line with their own policy and spending desires and to also comply with Senate rules. He noted that Senate Democrats have been working "overtime" to target a litany of policies in the GOP's plan that "are in clear violation of the reconciliation rules and, in some cases, an assault on our very democracy." Some Republicans already have issues with certain policies in the bill, like cuts to Medicaid or the plan to move up the timeline to phase out green energy tax credits ushered in by the Biden administration. Schumer also prodded Democrats to continue aggressively denouncing the bill on the ground in their home states and districts, arguing that "if the American people truly knew how deeply devastating, damaging, and deceitful this Republican plan is, they will reject it." "Republicans' 'One Ugly Bill' is a farce; an attack on the values that make America great," he wrote. "We know the first four months of Donald Trump's presidency have been catastrophic for the American people. It is our duty to fight for American families, to stop the damage, and make certain Republicans are held accountable."
CBS News
16 hours ago
- Business
- CBS News
GOP-friendly group pouring in millions to try to boost support for Trump tax agenda
A leading GOP friendly group supporting President Trump's "one, big, beautiful bill" is readying a $4 million advertising buy aimed at helping steer the effort through the Senate after a number of Republicans voiced concerns about the legislation as it stands. The plans from Americans for Prosperity, first reported on by CBS News, come as the GOP-controlled Senate is expected to focus on the sprawling bill key to Mr. Trump's agenda after it narrowly passed the Republican led-House last month. The messaging from AFP includes "video and digital ads that will air on cable, connected TV, and other digital platforms," according to the organization. Television advertisements from the group will initially air in North Carolina, Louisiana, Maine, Idaho and the District of Columbia but could expand further. "The sooner the Senate advances the bill, the sooner Americans start seeing relief where they need it most," said Brent Gardner, the organization's chief government affairs officer in a statement. The statement also noted the group is well aware that as the process being used to fast track the bill progressed "the hill to climb was only going to get steeper." Crucial to the GOP bill is its continuation of key parts of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was a legislative trademark of Mr. Trump's first term in office. But the expansive bill that passed the House also includes Medicaid work requirements, a raise of the debt ceiling and a bevy of other major measures that could prove politically difficult to pass even with the relatively strong GOP majority in the Senate. "Look, I want to vote for it. I'm for the tax cuts. I voted for the tax cuts before. I want the tax cuts to be permanent, but at the same time, I don't want to raise the debt ceiling $5 trillion," Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." The new advertising move from AFP include testimonials that show not only the impact of the 2017 tax cuts but also what could happen if Congress does not act soon to extend those earlier changes along with "ads encouraging fiscal hawks in the Senate to find spending offsets by further eliminating wasteful Biden-era spending programs," according to details set to be released by AFP. Democrats in Congress have so far strongly resisted the Trump agenda legislation. While most legislation in the Senate typically requires bipartisan support because of the chamber's filibuster threshold, Republican leaders are using a procedural route that would allow them to pass the bill on the strength of their partisan majority alone. Already a messaging standoff has emerged around the bill that could play a major role in the 2026 midterms. "Senate Republicans are doing everything in their power to rip away health care and spike costs for hardworking families, all to give billionaires a massive tax handout," Maeve Coyle, a spokesperson for the Senate Democrats campaign arm said in a recent statement. "Under the leadership of Senate Republicans, millions of people are at risk of losing their health insurance – and voters will hold them accountable for it at the ballot box in 2026." The Republican Party doesn't need every one of its Senators to vote for the bill in order for it to pass due to the party's successful 2024 election that saw the right take back the majority in the chamber and finish with a total of 53 seats. But losing the support of just four GOP senators could doom the push. "The Senate will have their differences, but focusing on where Republicans are unified is what will drive this bill forward – permanent tax cuts, energy abundance, secure borders, and the elimination of waste, fraud, and abuse," Gardner, with Americans for Prosperity, said in a statement.
CBS News
a day ago
- Business
- CBS News
Trump's "one big beautiful bill" holdout Sen. Rand Paul says "the math doesn't really add up"
Washington — Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said Sunday that "the math doesn't really add up" on the cost of President Trump's "one big beautiful bill," while outlining his opposition as the legislation moves to the Senate this week. "I think they're asking for too much money," Paul said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." Paul is among a handful of Senate Republicans who have expressed opposition to the centerpiece legislation of Mr. Trump's second term agenda that addresses the president's tax, defense and energy priorities and which the House narrowly approved last month. The Kentucky Republican argued Sunday that with the legislation, "there's going to be a lot of extra money" going toward "padding the military budget" and additional border security when "the President has essentially stopped the border flow without new money and without any legislation." But Paul's red line, he indicated, is on the legislation's provision that would to raise the debt ceiling. The House-passed bill includes a $4 trillion debt ceiling hike, while the Senate's budget blueprint contained a $5 trillion increase. And Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told congressional leaders earlier this month that the federal government could be unable to pay its bills as soon as August if Congress doesn't act. Paul has advocated for removing the debt ceiling provision from the bill and voting on the issue separately. Paul said he wants to vote for the legislation and its tax components should the debt ceiling component be removed, saying "in all likelihood, I can vote for what the agreement is on the rest of the bill, and it doesn't have to be perfect to my liking." But for him, the debt ceiling increase is a nonstarter. "If I vote for the $5 trillion debt, who's left in Washington that cares about the debt?" Paul said. "The GOP will own the debt once they vote for this." Congressional Republicans have sought to raise the debt ceiling as part of the broader budget package because the reconciliation process that governs the bill allows them to move forward without support from across the aisle. Separating the debt ceiling component from the broader bill would mean Senate Republicans would have to negotiate with Democrats, giving them an opportunity to extract leverage despite the GOP majorities in Congress. Still, Paul argued that the Republicans who support the spending increase should be the ones responsible for voting for a debt ceiling increase, noting that Democrats have historically supported raising the debt limit as well. The Kentucky Republican has also proposed smaller increases that suspend the debt limit for a matter of months, forcing lawmakers to verify that spending cuts have been implemented before approving a further hike. Mr. Trump warned Paul about opposing the legislation in a post on Truth Social Saturday, saying "Rand will be playing right into the hands of the Democrats, and the GREAT people of Kentucky will never forgive him!" Meanwhile, Bessent, who also appeared Sunday on "Face the Nation," pushed back on the bill's forecasted impact on the deficit, pointing to income from tariffs among other things that he said will improve the full picture. The treasury secretary said changes to the bill will be "the Senate's decision," noting that he's been working closely with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, whom he said has been "doing a fantastic job." "Everyone said that Speaker Johnson would not be able to get this bill out of the House with his slim majority – he got it out, " Bessent said. "Leader Thune has a bigger majority, and this is with President Trump's leadership." Asked about the administration's red lines as the bill heads to the Senate, Bessent pointed to some of the president's campaign promises, including no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security, among others, which he said would "have to stay in." On the debt limit, Bessent urged that "the United States of America is never going to default." But he declined to specify an X date, or the date the U.S. will run out of money to pay its bills. "That is never going to happen," he added. "We are on the warning track, and we will never hit the wall."
Fox News
2 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Senate Republicans eye changes to Trump's megabill after House win
House Republicans eked out a win in May with their advancement of President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill," filled with negotiations and compromises on thorny policy issues that barely passed muster in the lower chamber. Next week, Senate Republicans will get their turn to parse through the colossal package and are eying changes that could be a hard sell for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who can only afford to lose three votes. Congressional Republicans are in a dead sprint to get the megabill — filled with Trump's policy desires on taxes, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt — onto the president's desk by early July. Trump has thrown his support behind the current product, but said during a press conference in the Oval Office on Friday that he expected the package to be "jiggered around a little bit." "It's going to be negotiated with the Senate, with the House, but the end result is it extends the Trump tax cuts," he said. "If it doesn't get approved, you'll have a 68% tax increase," the president continued. "You're going to go up 68%. That's a number that nobody has ever heard of before. You'll have a massive tax increase." Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has an identical margin to Johnson, and will need to cultivate support from a Senate GOP that wants to put its own fingerprints on the bill. Senators have signaled they'd like to make changes to a litany of House proposals, including reforms to Medicaid and the timeline for phasing out green energy tax credits, among others, and have grumbled about the hike to the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap pushed for by moderate House Republicans. Thune said many Republicans are largely in favor of the tax portion of the bill, which seeks to make Trump's first-term tax policy permanent, and particularly the tax policies that are "stimulative, that are pro-growth, that will create greater growth in the economy." Much of the debate, and prospective tweaks, from the upper chamber would likely focus on whether the House's offering has deep enough spending cuts, he said. "When it comes to the spending side of the equation, this is a unique moment in time and in history where we have the House and the Senate and the White House and an opportunity to do something meaningful about controlled government spending," Thune said. The House package set a benchmark of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade. Some in the Senate GOP would like to see that number cranked up marginally to at least $2 trillion, largely because the tax portion of the package is expected to add nearly $4 trillion to the deficit, according to recent findings from the Joint Committee on Taxation. "There's just so many great things in this bill," Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., told Fox News Digital. "The only thing I would like to do is try to cut the spending, and I would love to take a little bit from a lot of places, rather than a lot from just one place." Others, like Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., want to see the cuts in the package return to pre-pandemic spending levels, which would amount to roughly a $6 trillion slash in spending. Johnson has remained unflinching in his opposition to the current bill, and warned that "no amount of pressure" from Trump could change his mind. "President Trump made a bunch of promises," Johnson said at an event in Wisconsin on Wednesday. "My promise has been, consistently, we have to stop mortgaging our children's future. OK, so I think there are enough [Republicans] to slow this process down until the president, our leadership, gets serious about returning to a pre-pandemic level." Others are concerned over the proposed slashes to Medicaid spending, which congressional Republicans have largely pitched as reform efforts designed to root out waste, fraud and abuse in the program used by millions of Americans. The House package would see a roughly $700 billion cut from the program, according to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and some Senate Republicans have signaled that they wouldn't support the changes if benefits were cut for their constituents. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., warned in an op-ed for The New York Times last month that cutting benefits was "both morally wrong and politically suicidal." Meanwhile, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, raised concerns about what proposed cuts to the program would do to rural hospitals in her state. "I cannot support proposals that would create more duress for our hospitals and providers that are already teetering on the edge of insolvency," she said.
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
'People Will Die': Mike Levin Sounds The Alarm On Trump's 'Deeply Irresponsible' Big Beautiful Bill
On "Forbes Newsroom," Congressman Mike Levin (D-CA) explained why he voted against President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill," as well as what changes he hopes the Senate makes to the legislation. Watch the full interview above.
