U.S. President Donald Trump and his Republican allies are locked in a deadly internal feud over a sweeping tax and spending bill they are trying to pass in the Senate, with Republican leaders hoping to move the bill through within days but facing growing resistance from various factions.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Thune, House Speaker Johnson and administration officials are urging their party members to work together to pass the “big, beautiful bill” so that Trump can sign it before Independence Day on July 4th.
But after the Congressional Budget Office released estimates that the tax and spending bills would increase the budget deficit by at least $2.8 trillion, conservative Republicans stepped up their demands for further spending cuts. Others have voiced opposition to the bills, hoping to minimize the impact of cuts to social welfare programs such as Medicaid.
The current balance of power in the U.S. Congress is as follows: Republicans hold 53 seats in the Senate, Democrats hold 47 seats, and the House of Representatives holds 220 seats for Republicans and 212 for Democrats. One Republican senator from each house has opposed the bill from the beginning, citing the debt problem.
Thune plans to begin the voting process on the tax and spending bill by the middle of the week, pass it over the weekend and send it back to the House for final approval.
Among Republican lawmakers who expect Trump to act as a firefighter, there are some who believe he will step up his efforts to bring about consensus within the party.
On the 22nd, he called for “great Republican unity, perhaps more unity than we’ve ever seen before. Let’s pass a great, big, beautiful bill!” he wrote on social media.
The tax and spending bills are also awaiting the decision of a “Senate Advisers” who will examine whether it is possible to pass them with a simple majority of 51 votes, avoiding a Democratic filibuster.
Fiscal hawks resist
Some Republican lawmakers have not accepted Thune’s timeline, saying they want more time for negotiations that could lead to bigger budget savings.
Senator Ron Johnson, a leading fiscal hawk who wants to return spending to pre-pandemic levels, said “absolutely not” when asked if he could vote for a tax and spending bill this week.
Johnson is aligned with fellow Senators Mike Lee and Rick Scott, who want to make budget savings in areas like green tax credits and Medicaid.
Senator Scott told reporters that if there was enough money on hand there would be no need to make any changes to the budget, but stressed that the United States has a $2 trillion deficit.
The CBO said last week that the tax and spending bills already passed by the House of Representatives could add $2.8 trillion to the federal budget deficit over the next decade.
Taking into account rising interest payments on the growing debt, the deficit is expected to grow to $3.4 trillion.
Republicans, on the other hand, argue that the economic boost that tax cuts will give rise to increased business activity, raising revenues and filling funding shortfalls.
Speaking at the Senate floor last week, Thune cited estimates from the Council of Economic Advisers that show the tax and spending bill would raise revenues by $4.1 trillion, more than enough to cover the CBO’s deficit projections.
The Senate version of the tax and spending bill would cut taxes on Medicaid providers in states that expanded able-bodied programs under the Affordable Care Act from 6% to 3.5% by 2031. Some Republican senators oppose that, saying it would cut support for rural hospitals.
However, the time for internal party discussions is soon coming to an end, and even those lawmakers who are undecided may ultimately support the bill.
Senator John Kennedy declared, “Some of us are going to have to be content with a ham and egg sandwich without ham. That’s the reality.”
