Senate Republicans scramble to pass Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill'
Senate Republicans are racing to pass a budget bill that is pivotal to President Donald Trump's second-term agenda ahead of a self-imposed 4 July deadline.The Senate Republican leadership have been twisting arms for an initial vote on the "Big Beautiful Bill" by Saturday afternoon, following the release of its latest version - all 940 pages - shortly after midnight.The rank-and-file of the president's party have been divided on how much to cut from welfare programmes in order to cover the cost of extending some $3.8tn (£2.8tn) in Trump tax breaks.The sprawling tax and spending measure narrowly passed the House of Representatives two weeks ago.
A look at the key items in Trump's 'big, beautiful bill'The woman who could bust Trump's 'big beautiful bill'The latest version is designed to appease some backbench Republican holdouts. It includes an increase in funding for rural hospitals, after some party moderates argued the original proposal would harm their constituents. Another tweak was made to State and Local Taxes (Salt) - a bone of contention for representatives from high-tax states such as New York.There is currently a $10,000 cap on how much taxpayers can deduct from the amount they owe in federal taxes. In the new bill, Senate Republicans have raised the Salt limit to $40,000 for married couples with incomes up to $500,000 - in line with what the House of Representatives approved.But the latest Senate version ends the $40,000 cap after five years - when it would drop back to $10,000.The legislation still contains some of its core components, including extending tax cuts passed by Republicans in 2017, as well as the addition of new cuts that Trump campaigned on, such as a tax deduction on Social Security benefits and the elimination of taxes on overtime work and tips. More contentious measures are also still in place, including restrictions and requirements on Medicaid - a healthcare programme used by millions of elderly, disabled and low-income Americans. Trump has pressured Congress to pass the bill quickly.Senate Majority Leader John Thune called a possible Saturday vote "aspirational", and it is still unclear whether Republicans can advance the bill. One Republican senator from Wisconsin, Ron Johnson, told the Fox & Friends programme on Saturday he will be voting "no", saying he still needed time to read it. "We just got the bill," Johnson said. "I got my first copy at about 01:23 in the morning."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
24 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘It's very concerning': conservatives react to Zohran Mamdani's New York primary showing
He is the democratic socialist who has been described as a gift to the Republican party. Zohran Mamdani's stunning showing in the Democratic primary election for mayor of New York this week was seen by some as perfect fodder to whip up a new 'red scare'. Donald Trump called him 'a 100% Communist Lunatic', writing on social media: 'We've had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous.' But at a gathering of religious conservatives in Washington on Friday, the first attendee interviewed by the Guardian expressed admiration for what Mamdani had pulled off in beating establishment favorite Andrew Cuomo. Kevin Abplanalp, who has worked on political campaigns, said: 'He ran a fantastic ground game. I was very impressed with his grassroots work. Cuomo was a terrible candidate so it's a combination of a repudiation of Cuomo and excitement over a younger guy with energy and different ideas.' Abplanalp, 49, executive director of the group Coalition for Liberty, added: 'He's a bit too socialistic for my taste but it is New York. They've had Marxists before. It is what it is.' Mamdani was endorsed by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, a leading progressive some believe could now be encouraged to mount a bid for the White House in 2028. But that prospect was met with complacency and ridicule at the Freedom & Faith Coalition's Road to Majority conference. Abplanalp commented: 'That is hilarious. I don't think she has the requisite experience. We've had other presidents who don't have the requisite experience: Jimmy Carter for one. Do people want to have another train wreck of someone that just talks a good game? There's nothing on her résumé that screams executive capability.' The annual gathering was addressed by senators from Pennsylvania, Ohio and Oklahoma along with Virginia'a governor, Glenn Youngkin, and Trump's border 'czar', Tom Homan. In the eyes of many delegates, Mamdani's surprise victory was evidence of liberal eccentricity in New York that will not fly elsewhere. Andrea Moore, 55, from Virginia, said: 'I'm a little surprised but at the same time it is New York.' She told an anecdote about an Uber driver who was upset about New York potentially giving people who illegally crossed the border '$2,000 a month of taxpayer money and the right to vote immediately'. As for Ocasio-Cortez running for president, she remarked: 'I don't think I'd fear it but I'd probably laugh about it.' Steven Perkins, 74, who is retired and from South Dakota, said: 'It's not just that we're conservatives but we know our communities. You get out of the big core cities and people are pretty conservative and traditional and they aren't ready for all of this much change to occur. There's this big reaction. The Democrats better wake up.' Mamdani, 33, combined charisma and social media savvy with a policy agenda focused on New York's affordability crisis. His plans include freezing rent for many residents, free bus service and universal childcare paid for by new taxes on the wealthy. Some at the Road to Majority conference found this affront to capitalism. Darin Moser, 56, from Mount Airy, North Carolina, said: 'It's very concerning. The United States was built on freedom and free markets and we need to stay on that because that's what's made us successful and the most successful nation in the world.' One attendee, who did not wish to be named, blamed the media for making socialism seem like the answer to their problems. He said: 'If you repeat anything enough times people are going to believe it but it's not been proven. Socialism or communism has proven to fail every time it's been put into play. It comes around newly clothed but it's the same worn-out policy.' The ascent of Mamdani, who would be New York's first Muslim mayor, triggered an onslaught of Islamaphobic attacks across social media, including from some Republican members of Congress. Centrist Democrats remained nervous about backing him, fearful that he could damage the party in swing states. But in the view of Ronald Wilcox, 63, from Fairfax county in Virginia, Democrats have already embraced extremism and lost touch with reality. 'The left has no limit to what they will vote for,' he said. 'I trust no Democrat because there's no limit to how bad a person can be and they'll still support him.' Could the US ever elect a socialist president? Wilcox, who works in direct mail, replied: 'I won't say never but the mood of America, the new generation, is embracing Trump. The young generation is moving to conservative, the Asians are moving to conservative, the Latinos are moving to conservative because we share their values.'
Daily Mail
25 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
What's in the latest version of Trump's big bill now before the Senate?
At some 940-pages, the legislation is a sprawling collection of tax breaks, spending cuts and other Republican priorities, including new money for national defense and deportations. Now it's up to Congress to decide whether President Donald Trump 's signature's domestic policy package will become law. Trump told Republicans, who hold majority power in the House and Senate, to skip their holiday vacations and deliver the bill by the Fourth of July. Senators were working through the weekend to pass the bill and send it back to the House for a final vote. Democrats are united against it. Here's the latest on what's in the bill. There could be changes as lawmakers negotiate. Republicans say the bill is crucial because there would be a massive tax increase after December when tax breaks from Trump's first term expire. The legislation contains roughly $3.8 trillion in tax cuts. The existing tax rates and brackets would become permanent under the bill. It temporarily would add new tax breaks that Trump campaigned on: no taxes on tips, overtime pay or some automotive loans, along with a bigger $6,000 deduction in the Senate draft for older adults who earn no more than $75,000 a year. It would boost the $2,000 child tax credit to $2,200 under the Senate proposal. Families at lower income levels would not see the full amount. A cap on state and local deductions, called SALT, would quadruple to $40,000 for five years. It's a provision important to New York and other high tax states, though the House wanted it to last for 10 years. There are scores of business-related tax cuts. The wealthiest households would see a $12,000 increase from the legislation, which would cost the poorest people $1,600 a year, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office analysis of the House's version. Middle-income taxpayers would see a tax break of $500 to $1,500, the CBO said. The bill would provide some $350 billion for Trump's border and national security agenda, including $46 billion for the U.S.-Mexico border wall and $45 billion for 100,000 migrant detention facility beds, as he aims to fulfill his promise of the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history. Money would go for hiring 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, with $10,000 signing bonuses and a surge of Border Patrol officers, as well. The goal is to deport some 1 million people per year. The homeland security secretary would have a new $10 billion fund for grants for states that help with federal immigration enforcement and deportation actions. The attorney general would have $3.5 billion for a similar fund, known as Bridging Immigration-related Deficits Experienced Nationwide, or BIDEN, referring to former Democratic President Joe Biden. To help pay for it all, immigrants would face various new fees, including when seeking asylum protections. For the Pentagon, the bill would provide billions for ship building, munitions systems, and quality of life measures for servicemen and women, as well as $25 billion for the development of the Golden Dome missile defense system. The Defense Department would have $1 billion for border security. To help partly offset the lost tax revenue and new spending, Republicans aim to cut back some long-running government programs: Medicaid, food stamps, green energy incentives and others. It's essentially unraveling the accomplishments of the past two Democratic presidents, Biden and Barack Obama. Republicans argue they are trying to rightsize the safety net programs for the population they were initially designed to serve, mainly pregnant women, the disabled and children, and root out what they describe as waste, fraud and abuse. The package includes new 80-hour-a-month work requirements for many adults receiving Medicaid and food stamps, including older people up to age 65. Parents of children 14 and older would have to meet the program´s work requirements. There's also a proposed new $35 co-payment that can be charged to patients using Medicaid services. Some 80 million people rely on Medicaid, which expanded under Obama's Affordable Care Act, and 40 million use the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. Most already work, according to analysts. All told, the CBO estimates that under the House-passed bill, at least 10.9 million more people would go without health coverage and 3 million more would not qualify for food stamps. The Senate proposes a $25 billion Rural Hospital Transformation Fund to help offset reduced Medicaid dollars. It's a new addition, intended to win over holdout GOP senators and a coalition of House Republicans warning that the proposed Medicaid provider tax cuts would hurt rural hospitals. Both the House and Senate bills propose a dramatic rollback of the Biden-era green energy tax breaks for electric vehicles. They also would phase out or terminate the various production and investment tax credits companies use to stand up wind, solar and other renewable energy projects. In total, cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and green energy programs would be expected to produce at least $1.5 trillion in savings. A number of extra provisions reflect other GOP priorities. The House and Senate both have a new children's savings program, called Trump Accounts, with a potential $1,000 deposit from the Treasury. The Senate provided $40 million to establish Trump´s long-sought 'National Garden of American Heroes.' There's a new excise tax on university endowments, restrictions on the development of artificial intelligence and blocks on transgender surgeries. A $200 tax on gun silencers and short-barreled rifles and shotguns was eliminated. One provision bars money to family planning providers, namely Planned Parenthood, while $88 million is earmarked for a pandemic response accountability committee. Billions would go for the Artemis moon mission and for exploration to Mars. The bill would deter states from regulating artificial intelligence by linking certain federal AI infrastructure money to maintaining a freeze. Seventeen Republican governors asked GOP leaders to drop the provision. Also, the interior secretary would be directed to sell certain Bureau of Land Management acreage to provide for housing. The sale of public lands would cover at least 600,000 acres and up to 1.2 million acres, according to a projection from the Center for Western Priorities, a conservation group. Altogether, keeping the existing tax breaks and adding the new ones is expected to cost $3.8 trillion over the decade, the CBO says in its analysis of the House bill. An analysis of the Senate draft is pending. The CBO estimates the House-passed package would add $2.4 trillion to the nation's deficits over the decade. Or not, depending on how one does the math. Senate Republicans are proposing a unique strategy of not counting the existing tax breaks as a new cost because those breaks are already 'current policy.' Senators say the Senate Budget Committee chairman has the authority to set the baseline for the preferred approach. Under the Senate GOP view, the tax provisions cost $441 billion, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. Democrats and others say this is 'magic math' that obscures the true costs of the GOP tax breaks. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget puts the Senate tally at $4.2 trillion over the decade.
The Guardian
34 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Mark Zuckerberg's secret list of top AI talent to poach has tech world atwitter
Mark Zuckerberg reportedly spent months putting together a list of the top AI engineers and researchers across the globe, preparing to offer potential recruits lucrative compensation packages in Meta's attempt to poach AI talent from key competitors. Silicon Valley has been talking for weeks about the Meta CEO's quest to attract top AI talent, including by offering pay packages worth up to $100m. Zuckerberg has personally reached out to desired candidates, according to the Wall Street Journal. Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has been competing in the search for AI dominance with rivals like OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Amazon, which have invested billions of dollars into AI research and product development. Last month, questions were raised about the direction of Meta's AI development after it delayed the scheduled rollout of Behemoth, its flagship AI model. Earlier this month, Meta paid $14bn for a stake in Scale AI and is putting its founder, 28-year-old Alexandr Wang, in charge of its 'superintelligence team' – an internal lab that would focus on Meta's efforts to develop a hypothetical AI system that is smarter than humans. Last year, Google bought out the shareholders in a chatbot service that allows users to have personal conversations with different AI personas, for $2.7bn. People on 'the list', as Zuckerberg's slate is known around Silicon Valley, include recent graduates from top PhD programs at schools like the University of California at Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon. Many are currently employed by Meta's AI competitors, including OpenAI and Google's DeepMind project, and have traded notes with each other on Meta's recruiting efforts. A recruit who has personally spoken to Zuckerberg said that his goal appears to be a 'transfusion from the country's top AI labs'. A WhatsApp group chat called 'Recruiting Party' was formed for Zuckerberg and at least two other senior Meta executives to talk through potential hires. The Meta CEO has been trying to personally find candidates by looking through research papers, according to the Wall Street Journal. Zuckerberg's hands-on recruiting efforts have drawn the ire of OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, who called the rumored signing bonuses and compensation packages on offer 'crazy'. 'I'm really happy that, at least so far, none of our best people have decided to take them up on that,' Altman said during an appearance on the Uncapped podcast, which is hosted by his brother Jack. 'I think the strategy of a ton of upfront, guaranteed comp, and that being the reason you tell someone to join, like really the degree to which they're focusing on that and not the work and not the mission, I don't think that's going to set up a great culture.'
