The Republican Senate Tuesday narrowly passed President Trump’s controversial Big Beautiful Bill after a marathon debate, clearing another hurdle toward a major political win for the White House.
After slogging through a brutal 28-hour marathon session, senators voted 50-50 for Trump’s sprawling package of tax and spending cuts, with three GOP lawmakers breaking ranks to vote against the bill one called “political suicide.”
Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote to keep the plan on track to become law in coming days.
“There is so much to be proud of, and everyone got a major policy win,” Trump crowed on his social media site. “But the biggest winner of them all will be the American people.”
Three Republicans voted against the bill: Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), who dramatically announced on Sunday that he won’t run for reelection.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted for the bill after winning a string of concessions and specific goodies for her state.
The bill now goes back to the House of Representatives, which passed a different version of it last month. Some fiscal hawks vowed to force changes to reduce the expected $3.3 trillion cost while moderates hope to soften draconian cuts to Medicaid.
The Senate bill tweaked the SALT deduction for state and local taxes passed by the House. It raises the annual cap to $40,000, a boon for suburban homeowners in high-tax blue states like New York and New Jersey, but sunsets the break after five years.
But Trump is still pushing for Congress to get the bill to his desk by a July Fourth deadline, a major achievement given the narrow GOP edges in both houses of Congress.
The 940-page bill has all but consumed Congress as its shared priority with Trump.
Polls say the bill is widely unpopular as Americans fear they could lose health benefits to fund tax cuts for the rich.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer attacked the bill as a “big ugly betrayal.
“Republicans passed the biggest tax breaks for billionaires ever seen… paid for by ripping healthcare from millions of people and taking food away from the mouths of hungry kids,” Schumer tweeted.
Murkowski, who was the pivotal vote, said she was happy to win some so-called carve-outs to ease the impact of the bill on her sprawling home state.
But in a remarkable statement, she also urged the House to make some changes to the very bill she voted to put over the top.
A new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found 11.8 million Americans will lose their health insurance if the bill becomes law, mostly due to cuts to the Medicaid program that serves low-income and disabled Americans.
The CBO said the package would increase the deficit by nearly $3.3 trillion over the decade and raises the debt ceiling by trillions, making it tough to swallow for GOP fiscal hawks who have spent their careers decrying tax-and-spend liberals.
All told, the Senate bill includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, according to the latest CBO analysis, making permanent Trump’s 2017 rates, while adding the new ones he campaigned on, like no taxes on tips, overtime and even some car payments.
It would provide a $350 billion infusion for border and national security, including for Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
The Senate package would roll back billions of dollars in green energy tax credits, which Democrats warn will wipe out wind and solar investments nationwide. It would impose $1.2 trillion in cuts and food stamps.
Billionaire Elon Musk has emerged as one of the harshest critics of the bill. The onetime first buddy trashed it as a “disgusting abomination” and says he’ll fund primary challenges to Republicans who backed it.
Trump countered by threatening to investigate Musk’s companies and even his immigration status.
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