Senate Passes Trump’s Megabill After 50-50 Vote, Vance Breaks Tie/ Newslooks/ WASHINGTON/ J. Mansour/ Morning Edition/ Senate Republicans narrowly passed President Trump’s sweeping tax cuts and spending bill after a marathon overnight session, with Vice President JD Vance breaking a 50-50 tie. The contentious legislation slashes taxes, cuts green energy incentives, and imposes stricter welfare requirements. The bill now returns to the House, facing more hurdles ahead of Trump’s July 4 deadline.
Quick Look
Trump’s Big Bill Quick Look
- Senate passes $4.5 trillion tax cuts package on tie-breaker
- Major cuts to Medicaid, green energy incentives, food stamps
- Democrats warn of rising deficits, 11.8 million losing coverage
- Bill heads back to House for final negotiations
- Elon Musk slams GOP over $5 trillion debt ceiling hike
- Overnight “vote-a-rama” reveals deep Republican divisions
- AI regulation ban dropped from final bill by bipartisan vote
- Trump insists “I don’t like cuts,” despite major reductions
Senate Republicans Push Trump’s Sweeping Tax-and-Spending Bill Through in Razor-Thin Vote
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans eked out passage of President Donald Trump’s massive tax cuts and spending reductions bill early Tuesday, surviving a chaotic all-night session and deep divisions within their own ranks.
Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote, giving Trump’s signature legislative push a hard-fought victory with a 51-50 tally.
The vote capped a bruising weekend on Capitol Hill, where Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” teetered on the brink of collapse more than once. Despite their majorities in both chambers, GOP leaders struggled mightily to unify their party around the sprawling 940-page package.
But the fight is hardly over. The bill now returns to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson has warned senators not to veer far from what his chamber already passed. Yet the Senate did just that, making significant changes, especially to Medicaid, threatening another collision as Republicans race to deliver the legislation by Trump’s self-imposed July Fourth deadline.
“It’s very complicated stuff,” Trump admitted before leaving the White House for a Florida visit. “I don’t want to go too crazy with cuts. I don’t like cuts.”
Turbulence All Night Long
What started as a routine marathon of amendment votes — the “vote-a-rama” — turned into a tense, sleep-deprived standoff. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota worked furiously through the night, trying to strike deals between GOP moderates worried about Medicaid cuts and conservatives demanding even deeper spending reductions.
Scenes of exhausted senators huddled in whispered negotiations were punctuated by grim expressions and repeated delays in the chamber.
Thune’s margin was razor-thin. He could afford to lose only three Republican votes. Yet two senators — Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who feared Medicaid cuts would strip millions of coverage, and Rand Paul of Kentucky, opposed to raising the debt ceiling by $5 trillion — had already signaled they might defect.
That shifted intense focus onto two key swing votes: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. Both raised alarms about cuts to health care and aid programs, while a small faction of conservatives, including Rick Scott of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah, demanded even steeper budget slashes.
At one point, Murkowski was surrounded by GOP leaders for over an hour, poring over documents and scribbling notes. Meanwhile, Paul emerged from a private meeting with Thune floating a potential deal to lower the debt ceiling hike — a move that could bring him on board.
Democrats Call the Bill Deeply Unpopular
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York declared, “Republicans are in shambles because they know the bill is so unpopular.”
A new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found the measure would leave 11.8 million more Americans uninsured by 2034. It also warned the plan would add nearly $3.3 trillion to federal deficits over the next decade.
Outside the Senate chamber, billionaire Elon Musk took to social media, lambasting the GOP as “the PORKY PIG PARTY!!” for advancing a bill that raises the debt ceiling by $5 trillion — a provision Republicans say is essential to keep the government solvent.
GOP Senators Insist on Changes
Despite the bill’s passage, few Republicans were entirely satisfied with the final product.
Collins had tried to double the proposed $25 billion fund for rural hospitals to $50 billion, suggesting higher taxes for ultra-wealthy Americans as an offset. Her proposal failed.
Murkowski was still maneuvering to secure carve-outs for Alaska, aiming to soften cuts to food stamps and boost federal reimbursements to hospitals in her state. Some of her adjustments appeared to survive, though others were blocked under Senate budget rules.
Asked how she’d vote as negotiations dragged on, Murkowski shrugged and said, “Radio silence.”
Meanwhile, the conservative group pressing for steeper health-care cuts — including senators Scott, Lee, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming — gathered in Thune’s office close to midnight, pushing their case.
What’s Inside Trump’s Sweeping Bill
The legislation is a colossal bundle of tax cuts, spending cuts, and policy shifts:
- $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, per the CBO’s latest estimate. The bill makes permanent the 2017 Trump tax rates set to expire at year’s end and adds new cuts, such as eliminating taxes on tipped income.
- Massive cuts to green energy incentives, rolling back billions in tax credits supporting wind and solar power, which Democrats warn could devastate clean-energy industries nationwide.
- $1.2 trillion in spending reductions, largely targeting Medicaid and food stamps. The plan imposes stricter work requirements on able-bodied adults, including some parents and older Americans, and tightens eligibility rules.
- $350 billion in new spending on border security and deportations, partially funded through increased fees charged to immigrants.
Democrats Fight to Slow Down Passage
Knowing they couldn’t block the bill outright, Senate Democrats turned to delay tactics, forcing a marathon reading of the entire text over the weekend — an exercise that lasted more than 16 hours.
While a handful of Democratic amendments won some GOP support, almost none made it into the final bill.
One rare bipartisan success was an amendment scrapping a controversial provision that would have blocked states from regulating artificial intelligence if they accepted certain federal funds. That measure passed 99-1.
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, blasted the GOP’s “magic math,” which treats Trump-era tax cuts as “current policy” and refuses to count the cost of extending them toward the deficit.
“That kind of accounting won’t fly with Americans trying to balance their own household books,” Murray said.
Now, as the bill returns to the House for another vote, the question looms: Can Republicans finish the job before Trump’s Independence Day deadline — or will this bruising legislative brawl drag on even longer?
You must Register or Login to post a comment.