Voting on amendments for Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' drags on as he takes swipe at Elon Musk

The Journal

a day ago

US SENATORS WERE in a marathon session of amendment votes yesterday as Republicans sought to pass President Donald Trump's flagship spending bill, an unpopular package set to slash social welfare programs and add an eye-watering $3 trillion to the national debt.
The president wants his 'One Big Beautiful Bill' to extend his expiring first-term tax cuts at a cost of $4.5 trillion (€3.8 trillion), boost military spending and fund his plans for unprecedented mass deportations and border security.
But senators eyeing 2026 midterm congressional elections are divided over provisions that would strip around $1 trillion (€848.6 billion) in subsidised health care from millions of the poorest Americans and add more than $3.3 trillion to the nation's already yawning budget deficits over a decade.
Trump wants to have the package on his desk by the time Independence Day festivities begin on Friday.
Progress in the Senate slowed to a glacial pace Monday, however, with no end in sight as the so-called 'vote-a-rama' – a session allowing members to offer unlimited amendments before a bill can move to final passage – went into a 13th hour.
With little sign of the pace picking up ahead of a final floor vote that could be delayed until well into the early hours of Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called for Republicans to 'stay tough and unified.'
Vote-a-ramas have been concluded in as little nine or 10 hours in the recent past and Democrats accused Republicans of deliberately slow-walking the process.
'They've got a lot of members who were promised things that they may not be able to deliver on. And so they're just stalling,' Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters.
'But we're just pushing forward amendment after amendment. They don't like these amendments. The public is on our side in almost every amendment we do.'
Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., left, and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., talk outside the Senate chamber as Republicans begin a final push to advance President Donald Trump's tax breaks and spending cuts package, at the Capitol in Washington.
Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Given Trump's iron grip on the party, he is expected to eventually get what he wants in the Senate, where Republicans hold a razor-thin majority and can overcome what is expected to be unified Democratic opposition.
That would be a huge win for the Republican leader – who has been criticised for imposing many of his priorities through executive orders that sidestep the scrutiny of Congress.
But approval by the Senate is only half the battle, as the 940-page bill next heads to a separate vote in the House of Representatives, where several rebels in the slim Republican majority are threatening to oppose it.
'Debt slavery'
Trump's heavy pressure to declare victory has put more vulnerable Republicans in a difficult position.
Nonpartisan studies have concluded that the bill would ultimately pave the way for a historic redistribution of wealth from the poorest 10 percent of Americans to the richest.
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And cuts to the Medicaid program – which helps low-income Americans get coverage in a country with notoriously expensive medical insurance – and cuts to the Affordable Care Act would result in nearly 12 million more uninsured people by 2034, independent analysis shows.
Polls show the bill is among the most unpopular ever considered across multiple demographic, age and income groups.
Senate Democrats have been focusing their amendments on highlighting the threats to health care, as well as cuts to federal food aid programs and clean energy tax credits.
Republican Majority Leader John Thune can only lose one more vote, with conservative Rand Paul and moderate Thom Tillis already on the record as Republican rebels.
A House vote on the Senate bill could come as early as Wednesday.
However, ultra-conservative fiscal hawks in the lower chamber have complained that the bill would not cut enough spending and moderates are worried at the defunding of Medicaid.
Trump's former close aide Elon Musk – who had an acrimonious public falling out with the president earlier this month over the bill – reprised his sharp criticisms and renewed his calls for the formation of a new political party as voting got underway.
The tech billionaire, who headed Trump's Department of Government Efficiency before stepping down at the end of May, accused Republicans of supporting 'debt slavery.'
He vowed to launch a new political party to challenge lawmakers who campaigned on reduced federal spending only to vote for the bill.
Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
In a post to Truth Social this morning, Trump said that the source of Musk's ire was the former's decision to roll back the electric vehicle mandate in the US, something contained in the so-called 'Big Beautiful Bill'.
Trump said that Musk knew that he and his administration were opposed to the EV mandate 'long before he so strongly Endorsed me for President', calling the mandate 'ridiculous'.
The US government has a goal to make half of all new vehicles sold in the country zero-emissions by 2030, which was set under the Biden administration.
'Electric cars are fine, but not everyone should be forced to own one,' Trump continued in his post.
'Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa.
'No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!'