WASHINGTON – President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” is critical to his agenda and after passing the House, it now faces an uncertain future in the Senate with some GOP members demanding changes.
“I can’t in good conscience give up every principle that I stand for and every principle that I was elected upon and that’s that we can’t accumulate more debt,” Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Republicans can only afford to lose three votes in the Senate.
“I think we’ll get there,” said Sen. Cramer, R-North Dakota. “What it will be exactly, I don’t know, but I think we will get there because failure is not an option.”
A new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office says the proposed legislation, which extends Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, would add $2.4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade. The analysis also projects about 11 million people would lose health insurance coverage as a result of changes to programs like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act tax credits.
Senate Republicans meeting with Trump at the White House Wednesday discussed even deeper spending cuts, up to $2 trillion while strengthening Medicaid.
“We are all in this together, this is a team effort, and everybody is going to be rowing in the same direction to get this across the finish line,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota. “Failure is not an option.”
Trump’s former ally and DOGE director Elon Musk is one of the bill’s fiercest critics. He’s urging his more than 200 million followers to call members of Congress to have them “kill the bill” and has dubbed it the “Debt Slavery Bill.”
“I think he’s flat wrong and I’ve told him as much,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday, adding that he had a good conversation with Musk earlier in the week and was surprised by his criticism.
So far, there’s been no comment from President Trump.
“He’s not delighted that Elon did a 180 on that,” said Johnson. “But look, I don’t know what happened in 24 hours. Everybody can draw their own conclusions about that.”
Some believe Musk could be motivated by his own self interest. Among other things, the bill cuts the electric vehicle tax credit.
Trump came out with a surprise of his own this week, announcing he agrees with longtime nemesis Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, on getting rid of the debt limit.
“After all these years I agree with Senator Elizabeth Warren on SOMETHING. The debt limit should be entirely scrapped to prevent an economic catastrophe,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Any changes to the “Big Beautiful Bill” in the Senate would restart negotiations in the House. The deadline to get it to President Trump’s desk is July 4th.
