Senate rushes to pass Trump's tax bill, as cost tops $3 trillion

Washington Post

a day ago

The Senate was plowing ahead on President Donald Trump's massive tax and immigration agenda Sunday as Republicans tried to swat away Democratic policy challenges and contend with its rising impact on the ballooning national debt.
Trump's budget bill would extend tax cuts passed in 2017, enact campaign promises such as no tax on tips, spend hundreds of billions of dollars on immigration and defense and slash social benefit programs. The multitrillion-dollar legislation survived a brief GOP revolt Saturday night to allow the chamber to move forward with debate on the measure.
Senators will likely work overnight to get the bill moving through the chamber. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) said he hopes to pass the legislation as soon as Monday so it can be sent back to the House for final approval in time to beat Trump's self-imposed Independence Day deadline. The House passed a version of Trump's agenda in May.
But the Congressional Budget Office, lawmakers' nonpartisan bookkeeper, reported Sunday that the measure would raise the national debt by $3.3 trillion over 10 years. That estimate does not include increased borrowing costs, which would be substantial because the measure, even with spending cuts, is largely deficit-financed.
The legislation has also grown increasingly unpopular among voters. A Washington Post-Ipsos poll conducted this month found Americans oppose the bill by an almost 2-to-1 margin, and 63 percent said the measure's debt impact was 'unacceptable.'
The bill would extend expiring tax cuts from Trump's first term and include new deductions the White House hopes will spur economic growth.
It includes a trio of Trump's populist campaign promises — no taxes on tips, overtime wages or auto loan interest — and adds $6,000 to the standard deduction for seniors. During the 2024 campaign, Trump pitched ending taxes on Social Security benefits, but the idea was not included in the bill.
For the private sector, the legislation would give corporations larger deductions for research and development, depreciating assets and interest on large purchases.
To offset the cost, Republicans have proposed steep cuts to Medicaid, the state and federal health insurance program for low-income individuals and disabled people, as well as SNAP, the anti-hunger Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program formerly known as food stamps.
'We don't pay people in this country to be lazy,' Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) said Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' 'We want to give them an opportunity, and when they're going through a hard time, we want to give them a helping hand. That's what Medicaid was designed for, and it's, unfortunately, it's been abused.'
The largest budget cuts would come from provider taxes, which are duties that states charge medical providers as a roundabout way of collecting more federal Medicaid dollars. Some in the GOP wish to use that policy to force states to jettison some immigrants from benefits rolls, leaving other lawmakers concerned about the finances of rural hospitals, which rely heavily on Medicaid patients.
That's become a sticking point among Republicans, both within the Senate and between senators and House members.
The House's version of the bill was far less expensive and far less punitive on Medicaid. The Senate overhauled that legislation in ways that some House members now find unrecognizable, and the measure could have trouble securing support when it returns to the lower chamber.
In the Senate, though, lawmakers who represent states that use provider taxes or have a large number of rural health care facilities have warned the provision is fatal to the success of the bill.
'Let's watch and be careful that we don't cut into bone, don't hurt our rural hospitals,' Sen. Jim Justice (R-West Virginia) said late last week. 'If we do that, it's going to be a bad day.'
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) voted with Democrats on Saturday night to block moving forward on the measure. Tillis announced Sunday that he would not seek reelection next year.
Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) have expressed similar concerns, though they voted to clear the bill's procedural hurdle.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) is steadfastly opposed to the bill over deficit concerns, meaning the GOP can lose only two more votes to keep the measure afloat. If that happens, Vice President JD Vance would be forced to break the Senate's tie.