Senate GOP bulldozes ahead with Trump bill as Democrats cry foul

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Jun 30, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

Senate Republicans on Monday bulldozed ahead with President Donald Trump’s sprawling Big Beautiful Bill, brushing aside Democratic objections to move within striking distance of a major political victory for the White House in time to beat a July 4 deadline.

The GOP-controlled Senate inched toward passing its version of the controversial bill even as Democrats forced senators to go on record supporting several controversial measures including draconian Medicaid spending cuts that will cause an estimated 11 million Americans to lose health coverage.

If Republicans can skirt scattered opposition from their own senators in the chamber that they control 53-47, the bill will head back to the House where GOP leaders will seek to jam it through by Thursday, just in time to head home for Independence Day fireworks.

Despite the near-unanimous GOP support, the bill has only become more politically poisonous as the Senate has piled on more tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations and even harsher health care cuts. It will raise the debt by $3.3 trillion, far more than even the House version passed in May.

The toxic combination led rebel Republican Sen. Thom Tillis to denounce it as a political disaster. He announced he won’t support it but also won’t run for reelection in the face of ugly attacks from Trump.

“(It) breaks promises and will kick people off of Medicaid who truly need it,” Tillis tweeted.

The 940-page One Big Beautiful Bill Act blows out the federal deficit by extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and adding more costly goodies like no taxes on tips and overtime and even some car payments.

Although the spending cuts are fueling major jitters of a voter revolt, they don’t come close to balancing out the giveaways, sparking anxiety among Republican budget deficit hawks.

GOP leaders secured enough support from their own ranks to muscle the legislation past a procedural weekend hurdle by a 51-49 vote, a win that leads most observers to believe they will push the bill over the finish line with at least the needed 50 votes, with Vice President JD Vance ready to cast a tiebreaking vote if needed.

If Republicans secure final passage, the bill will head back to the House where Speaker Mike Johnson plans to pull out all the stops to bully his fractious caucus into approving it.

A group of fiscal conservative lawmakers say the bill is even worse than the version they reluctantly approved in May, and they vowed to torpedo it. Onetime Trump pal Elon Musk is trashing the new bill as “utterly insane and destructive.”

A handful of moderates fear the Medicaid cuts could spark a Democratic blue wave that could sweep them out of office in the midterms.

But few would bet against Trump eventually finally scoring the win he wants, and soon.

_____