Senate Republicans advance Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' after dramatic late-night vote

CBC

13 hours ago

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Senate Republicans voting in a dramatic late Saturday session narrowly cleared a key procedural step as they race to advance U.S. President Donald Trump's package of tax breaks, spending cuts and bolstered deportation funds by his Fourth of July deadline.
The tally, 51-49, came after a tumultuous night with Vice-President JD Vance at the Capitol to break a potential tie. Tense scenes played out in the chamber as voting came to a standstill, dragging for more than three hours as holdout senators huddled for negotiations, and took private meetings off the floor. In the end, two Republicans opposed the motion to proceed, joining all Democrats.
There's still a long weekend of work to come.
Republicans are using their majorities in Congress to push aside Democratic opposition, but they have run into a series of political and policy setbacks. Not all GOP lawmakers are on board with proposals to reduce spending on Medicaid, food stamps and other programs as a way to help cover the cost of extending some $3.8 trillion in Trump tax breaks.
"It's time to get this legislation across the finish line," said Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
Ahead of roll call, the White House released a statement of administrative policy saying it "strongly supports passage" of the bill. Trump himself was at his golf course in Virginia on Saturday with GOP senators posting about the visit on social media.
But by nightfall, Trump was lashing out against holdouts, threatening to campaign against one Republican, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who had announced he could not support the bill because of grave Medicaid cuts that he worried would leave many without health care in his state. Tillis and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky voted against.
Pressure was mounting from all sides — billionaire Elon Musk criticized the package as "utterly insane and destructive."
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The 940-page One Big Beautiful Bill Act was released shortly before midnight Friday, and senators are expected to grind through all-night debate and amendments in the days ahead. If the Senate is able to pass it, the bill would go back to the House for a final round of votes before it could reach the White House.
With the narrow Republican majorities in the House and Senate, leaders need almost every lawmaker on board. A new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the Senate bill would increase by 11.8 million the number of people without health insurance in 2034.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Republicans unveiled the bill "in the dead of night" and are rushing to finish the bill before the public fully knows what's in it. He immediately forced a full reading of the text late Saturday in the Senate, which would take hours.
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Make-or-break moment for GOP
The weekend session could be a make-or-break moment for Trump's party, which has invested much of its political capital on his signature domestic policy plan. Trump is pushing Congress to wrap it up and has admonished the "grandstanders" among GOP holdouts to fall in line. The legislation is an ambitious but complicated series of GOP priorities. At its core, it would make permanent many of the tax breaks from Trump's first term that would otherwise expire by year's end if Congress fails to act, resulting in a potential tax increase on Americans. The bill would add new breaks, including no taxes on tips, and commit $350 billion to national security, including for Trump's mass deportation agenda.
But the cutbacks to Medicaid, food stamps and green energy investments are also causing dissent within GOP ranks.
The Republicans are relying on the reductions to offset the lost tax revenues but some lawmakers say the cuts go too far, particularly for people receiving health care through Medicaid. Meanwhile, conservatives, worried about the nation's debt, are pushing for steeper cuts.
Canada's digital services tax under fire
Dubbed the "revenge tax," Section 899 of Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act calls for a new withholding tax to be imposed on investment income paid out by American companies to investors who live in countries the U.S. government considers to have unfair or discriminatory taxes.
Canada's digital services tax (DST), which hits companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb with a tax on revenue from Canadian users, is among the taxes the U.S. considers discriminatory.
In the last few weeks and months, Trump has given a number of rationales for escalating the trade dispute between Canada and the United States. On Friday, he zeroed in on the DST.
The DST affects mega companies that offer digital services — like online advertising or shopping — and earn more than $20 million in revenue from Canadian sources. Giant companies like Amazon, Apple, Airbnb, Google, Meta and Uber will be taxed three per cent on the money they make from Canadian users and customers.
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U.S. President Donald Trump indicated that he would increase government spending and loosen some fiscal restraints with a new spending bill dubbed the "big beautiful bill" last week. Mark Ting, a partner with Foundation Wealth and On The Coast's personal finance columnist, says that markets have already responded positively to the bill.
The levy has been in place since last year, but the first payments are due starting Monday. It's retroactive to 2022, so companies will end up with a $2-billion US bill due by the end of July.
Revenue is one big benefit. The Parliamentary Budget Office estimated last year that the tax would bring in more than $7 billion over five years.