Left, Right Both See Trouble Ahead for Republican Budget Plan
Trump’s so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” short of needed votes, Republican senator says
The massive Republican budget bill that Donald Trump dubbed his “Big, Beautiful Bill” is in trouble, according to lawmakers of both parties.
The legislation — which would cut to the bone major federal programs like Medicaid for healthcare and SNAP for food assistance, for low-income and working-class Americans, in exchange for more tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and big corporations — was approved last month in the House by a single Republican vote.
Now in the Senate, it’s short of the majority of 51 votes required to pass the measure and send it to Trump for his signature into law.
That’s according to one of the Senate Republicans who opposes the bill.
“I think that there are four of us [who oppose the bill], and I would be surprised if the bill isn’t at least modified in a good direction, said Sen Rand Paul, of Kentucky, who is against the legislation because he wants even more spending cuts.
But, if Democratic senators all hold firm as expected against the bill, Senate Republicans can afford to lose just three of their own to hit the threshold at which Vice President JD Vance could cast a tie-breaking vote to push it over the line with a 51-vote majority.
Even a consistent ally and advisor of Trump’s — billionaire Elon Musk — has expressed disappointment with the “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
The trouble facing the Republicans’ budget plan resembles the difficulty that their planned repeal of the Affordable Care Act hit during Trump’s first term before it ultimately was defeated, according to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).
"The bill is deeply unpopular. If you go back to where we were in 2017, where Republicans — after several failed attempts — finally got their effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act out of the House of Representatives. But it limped out of the house and then failed in the Senate,” he said. “I think the ‘One Big, Ugly Bill’ is setting up for a similar fate, but we can‘t let our foot off the gas pedal."
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