Trump's ‘One Big Beautiful Bill' clears first Senate hurdle: Republican race for votes, criticism, proposals

Mint

4 hours ago

The Republican majority-held United States Senate voted on and pushed through US President Donald Trump's much touted tax-cuts and spending proposal, dubbed as the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' Act today (late Saturday local time), according to reports.
The US Senate voted 51-49 to pass the first Senate hurdle, and Donald Trump took to social media to celebrate, calling it a 'great victory' and crediting Republican lawmakers Rick Scott, Mike Lee, Ron Johnson, and Cynthia Lummis for 'fantastic work'. In his 'victory' post on Truth Social, Donald Trump said he will work on growing the US economy, 'reduce wasteful spending, secure our border, fight for our military and veterans, ensure that our medicaid system helps those who truly need it, protect our second amendment, and more…'
The 'rare' weekend session began with a debate on the 940-page sweeping bill, with opposition from Democrats and two Republicans.
The legislation seeks to fund Donald Trump's campaign promises on border control, military spending, immigration, and tax-cuts.
After hours of delay US Vice President JD Vance worked to pursuade Republican lawmakers on the fence and delivered the 'tie-breaking vote', according to reports by Reuters and AP, respectively. Democrats have demanded that the Bill be read out in Chamber, and will be followed by 20 hours of debate, followed by amendment sessions before the bill is complete. The full process is expected to end by June 30.
A senior White House official told Reuters that Donald Trump was monitoring the vote from the Oval Office late into the night.
According to an analysis by the nonpartisan Joint Tax Committee, the Senate version of the bill's tax provisions would reduce government revenue by $4.5 trillion over the next decade, increasing the $36.2-trillion US government debt. The White House said this month the legislation would reduce the annual deficit by $1.4 trillion.
As per the AP report, an estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office showed that the House-passed version of Trump's tax bill would cost around 10.9 million more people their healthcare, and at least 3 million food aid. 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. Meanwhile, Elon Musk has renewed his criticism of Donald Trump's tax plan in a scathing post on social media platform X. He called the bill 'utterly insane and destructive.' He wrote: 'The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!'
Democrats will focus their firepower with amendments aimed at reversing Republican spending cuts to programs that provide government-backed healthcare to the elderly, poor and disabled, as well as food aid to low-income families.
(With inputs from AP and Reuters)