Senate Republicans push through Trump's tax breaks bill in knife-edge vote
The outcome capped an unusually tense weekend of work at the Capitol as the president's signature legislative priority teetered on the edge of approval or collapse.
Senate majority leader John Thune spent the night searching for last-minute agreements between those in his party worried that the bill's reductions to Medicaid would leave millions without care, and his most conservative flank, which wanted steeper cuts to hold down deficits ballooning with the tax cuts.
Vice president JD Vance (J Scott Applewhite/AP)
It was a pivotal moment for the Republicans as the 940-page One Big Beautiful Bill Act, as it is formally titled, consumed Congress as its shared priority with the president.
House speaker Mike Johnson has signalled more potential problems ahead, warning that the Senate package could run into trouble when it is sent back to the House for a final round of voting, as sceptical legislators are being called back to Washington ahead of Mr Trump's July 4 deadline.
The president acknowledged it is 'very complicated stuff', as he left the White House On Tuesday.
'We're going to have to see the final version,' he said. 'I don't want to go too crazy with cuts. I don't like cuts.'
What started as a routine but laborious day of amendment voting spiralled into an almost round-the-clock marathon as Republican leaders were buying time to shore up support. It was among the longest sessions processing the most amendments in modern times.
House speaker Mike Johnson (J Scott Applewhite/AP)
The droning roll calls in the chamber belied the frenzied action to steady the bill. Grim-faced scenes played out on and off the Senate floor, and tempers flared.
The bill includes 4.5 trillion dollars (£3.2 trillion) in tax cuts, according to the latest analysis, making permanent Mr Trump's 2017 rates, which would expire at the end of the year if Congress fails to act, while adding the new ones he campaigned on, including no taxes on tips.
The package would roll back billions of dollars in green energy tax credits, which Democrats warn will wipe out wind and solar investments nationwide.
It would impose 1.2 trillion dollars (£870 billion) in cuts, largely to Medicaid and food stamps, by imposing work requirements on able-bodied people, including some parents and older Americans, making sign-up eligibility more stringent and changing federal reimbursements to states.
Additionally, the bill would provide a 350 billion dollar (£254 billion) infusion for border and national security, including for deportations, some of it paid for with new fees charged to immigrants.
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Daily Mail
7 minutes ago
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The Guardian
10 minutes ago
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Daily Mail
22 minutes ago
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