The Big Beautiful Bill (BBB) would make Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent, end taxation on tips and overtime, boost border security funding and scrap green-energy tax credits passed during the Biden administration; the latter point has drawn strong opposition from Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
In a late vote Saturday the Senate passed the BBB 51-49, a procedural vote to start debate on the legislation with Republican Senators Thom Tillis and Rand Paul remaining in opposition. The bill now heads to the floor for debate and amendment which could position a full vote by the Senate Monday.
As with all large bills there are a lot of aspects that provide positive outcomes, and there are some negatives embedded within it as a result of Senators holding out on behalf of their primary lobbyist organizations. The Democrats are unified in opposition as a political strategy to weaken President Trump.
WASHINGTON DC – Senate Republicans voting in a dramatic late Saturday session narrowly cleared a key procedural step as they race to advance President Donald Trump’s package of tax breaks, spending cuts and bolstered deportation funds by his July Fourth 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.
It’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, R-S.D.
Ahead of the expected 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.”
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. (more)
My personal view on the BBB surrounds the larger geopolitical implications of passage.
In my estimation there are several facets to President Trump’s domestic and foreign policy agenda that have been in a holding pattern as he awaited the Senate to take up the BBB and get it finished. President Trump did not want to stir opposition amid the Senate thereby giving them ammunition to hold the BBB hostage for other agendas.
Once the BBB is finished, passed by the Senate, reconciled in the House and signed by President Trump, I would anticipate a lot of fast-paced activity to follow.