US Senate Republicans push ahead on Trump's sweeping tax-cut, spending bill

New Straits Times

5 hours ago

WASHINGTON: US Senate Republicans planned to vote Saturday on President Donald Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending bill after agreeing on changes to address concerns about funding for rural hospitals and the deductibility of state taxes.
Several Republican senators who had previously expressed hesitancy about voting for the bill told reporters that their concerns had been assuaged and that they were ready to vote to clear a first procedural hurdle in the coming hours.
Senator John Barrasso, the chamber's No. 2 Republican, said the first procedural vote on the legislation would take place shortly, though it did not start by 4pm (2000 GMT), as he had predicted. The bill is Trump's top legislative goal. With his fellow Republicans controlling both chambers, Congress has so far not rejected any of Trump's priorities.
The 940-page megabill would extend the 2017 tax cuts that were Trump's main legislative achievement during his first term as president, cut other taxes and boost spending on the military and border security. Nonpartisan analysts estimate that a version passed by the House of Representatives last month would add about US$3 trillion to the US$36.2 trillion US government debt.
The Congressional Budget Office has not released a forecast for how much the Senate version - still subject to change - would add to the debt if enacted.
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget public policy organisation on Saturday said its preliminary estimate is that the Senate version would add US$4 trillion to the debt over the next decade, including interest costs.
"If you thought the House bill borrowed too much - and it did - the Senate manages to make things even worse," Maya MacGuineas, the group's president, said in a statement.
The White House said this month that the legislation, titled the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, would reduce the annual deficit by US$1.4 trillion.
Democrats opposed the bill, saying its tax-cut elements would disproportionately benefit the wealthy at the expense of social programmes relied upon by lower-income Americans. "Future generations will be saddled with trillions in debt," said Senator Chuck Schumer, the Senate's top Democrat. "Under this draft Republicans will take food away from hungry kids to pay for tax breaks to the rich."
Schumer called for the bill's full text to be read on the Senate floor after the vote, a procedure that was sure to run late into the night, if not past dawn.
MUSK LASHES OUT AGAIN
The world's richest person, Elon Musk, took a swipe at the bill, calling it "utterly insane and destructive". He risked reigniting a feud with Trump that raged earlier this month, before Musk backed down from his rhetoric
"The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!" Musk wrote in a post on his social media platform X.
Republican Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Susan Collins of Maine, who had opposed concern about tax-code changes that could hurt rural hospitals, told reporters they were ready to move forward.
A successful vote would kick off a lengthy process that could run into Sunday, as Democrats unveil a series of amendments unlikely to pass in a chamber that Republicans control 53-47.
"By passing this bill now, we will make our nation more prosperous and secure," Senate Budget Committee chairman Lindsey Graham said in a statement accompanying the bill text.
MEDICAID CHANGES
Republicans from states with large rural populations have opposed a reduction in state tax revenue for Medicaid providers including rural hospitals. The newly released legislation would delay that reduction and would include US$25 billion to support rural Medicaid providers from 2028 to 2032.
"If you want to be a working-class party, you've got to get and deliver for working-class people," Hawley told reporters. "You cannot take away healthcare for working people."
The legislation would raise the cap on federal deductions for state and local taxes to US$40,000 with an annual 1% inflation adjustment through 2029, after which it would fall back to the current US$10,000. The bill would also phase the cap down for those earning more than US$500,000 a year.
That is a major concern of House Republicans from coastal states including New York, New Jersey and California, who play an important role in keeping the party's narrow House majority.
Republicans are using a legislative maneuver to bypass the Senate's 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation in the 100-member chamber.
NARROW PATH
The narrow majorities for Republicans in the Senate and House mean they can afford no more than three no votes from the party in either chamber to advance a bill that Democrats are united in opposing.
Democrats will focus their firepower with amendments aimed at reversing Republican spending cuts to programmes that provide government-backed healthcare to the elderly, poor and disabled, as well as food aid to low-income families.
The bill also would raise the Treasury Department's debt ceiling by trillions of dollars to stave off a potentially disastrous default on the nation's debt in the coming months. If the Senate passes the bill, it will then return to the House for another vote before Trump could sign it into law. - Reuters