By Jacob Bogage
Republicans hope they are hours away Monday from notching the first major legislative victory of President Donald Trump’s second term as the Senate steams toward a vote on the White House’s massive tax and immigration agenda.
Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill would extend tax cuts passed in 2017, enact campaign promises such as no tax on tips, spend hundreds of billions of dollars on immigration and defense, and slash social benefit programs.
The $3.3 trillion legislation survived a brief GOP revolt over the weekend to allow the chamber to move forward with debate on the measure, but its final passage is far from certain.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) took to the Senate floor twice Sunday night to excoriate his party’s legislation, saying it would “break a promise” the GOP made not to cut health care benefits and would put more than 600,000 people in his state “at risk” of losing their health insurance. Tillis earlier in the day – after online clashes with Trump – said he would not seek reelection in 2026.
Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) have also expressed concerns over the health care provisions in the bill. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) has vowed to oppose it over concerns about the national debt.
With only a three-seat majority, that puts the legislation in peril. Vice President JD Vance nearly had to cast the tiebreaking vote Saturday night to move the bill over a procedural hurdle.
Democrats have been determined to make any passage as painful as possible. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) demanded that the entire 940-page bill be read aloud on the Senate floor – a process that took nearly 16 hours. Only after that did debate begin in earnest on the Senate floor Sunday afternoon.
Democrats on Monday are offering an onslaught of amendments before the final vote that are sure to lose but will put candidates on notice in future elections.
“It is outrageous to take food out of the mouths of hungry children, to take health care away from people who need it to survive, just for tax cuts for the billionaires,” Schumer said on the Senate floor, “and the American people know it.”
The bill would extend expiring tax cuts from Trump’s first term and includes deductions the White House hopes will spur economic growth. It includes a trio of Trump’s populist campaign promises – no taxes on tips, overtime wages or auto loan interest – and adds $6,000 to the standard deduction for seniors. During the 2024 campaign, Trump pitched ending taxes on Social Security benefits, but the idea was not in the bill.
For the private sector, the legislation would give corporations larger deductions for research and development, depreciating assets and interest on large purchases.
The bill would cut $1.1 trillion from health benefits programs, according to the Congressional Budget Office. And, by 2034, nearly 12 million people would lose health insurance.
“In the time I’ve been here, we have never, ever done anything to reform and improve and strengthen these programs that are growing at an unsustainable rate, that will wreck our economy and wreck our country if we don’t start making some changes,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) said on the Senate floor Monday. “So, yes, there are some improvements and reforms to Medicaid to make it more efficient, to make sure that the people who are supposed to benefit from Medicaid do, and that it doesn’t go to people who shouldn’t benefit from Medicaid.”
