Posted on 05/19/2025 4:50:45 AM PDT by RandFan
Senate Republicans say the House-drafted bill to enact President Trump’s legislative agenda has “problems” and are taking a second look at breaking it up into smaller pieces in hopes of getting the president’s less controversial priorities enacted into law before the fall.
Even if Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) manages to squeak Trump’s agenda through the House, it faces major obstacles in the Senate, where moderate Republicans say they oppose proposed cuts to Medicaid and fiscal conservatives say it doesn’t go nearly far enough in cutting the deficit.
“There are still a lot of problems,” said one Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss internal discussions within the Senate GOP conference on the budget reconciliation bill.
The source said that while proposed cuts in Medicaid spending face stiff opposition in the Senate, GOP negotiators have yet to make much headway on reforms to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which conservatives are targeting for cuts.
The lawmaker said colleagues are talking about a Plan B if the bill fails to pass the House or if it hits a brick wall in the Senate.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
They will have to vote it separately if votes are lacking for the single package that they select, but the outcome will be more certain if they can agree on a single package that is sure to pass.
The Senate had its job cut out for it, and the one thing they have to focus on is the budget deficit and how it will affect our debt which will be approaching $40 trillion and increasing our debt to GDP ratio ( it is now close to 125% last I checked ).
The “big beautiful bill” that recently passed through the House committee does not address the budget deficit or the national debt in a meaningful or effective way. In fact, independent analyses and bipartisan fiscal watchdogs project that the bill would significantly increase both the deficit and the debt over the next decade.
The bill proposes to permanently extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts and add new tax reductions (including eliminating taxes on tips, overtime, and auto loan interest), while also increasing funding for border security and defense. Independent estimates project that these measures would increase the national debt by approximately $2.5 to $3.3 trillion over the next ten years!
See here:
https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/big-beautiful-bill-house-gop-tax-plan/
Spending Cuts Are Small or Uncertain:
While the bill includes some proposed spending cuts (such as to Medicaid and social programs), these are either relatively small compared to the size of the tax cuts or are delayed and may not materialize.
For example, the House Freedom Caucus and other fiscal conservatives have criticized the bill for not delivering real, immediate savings, noting that “as written, the bill continues increased deficits in the near term with possible savings years down the road that may never materialize.
See here:
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/johnson-house-gop-track-pass-trump-agenda-bill/story?id=121929563
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group, estimates a $3.3 trillion increase in debt from the bill.
See here:
https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/big-beautiful-bill-house-gop-tax-plan/
It looks like The “big, beautiful” bill, as currently written, would increase the budget deficit and national debt, not reduce them. The tax cuts far outweigh the proposed spending reductions, and any promised savings are either minor or uncertain
No, they were phasing in work requirements for Americans.
Full cuts on Medicaid for illegals, including contributions at the state level, would provide massive savings.
This Bill, as written will not pass Senate at all.
Forget the Democrats for a moment ( since we all know they want more spending )…. The Senate’s inclination regarding the “big beautiful bill” is strongly skeptical and largely negative in its current form. Multiple Republican senators, including Sen. Ron Johnson, have openly predicted that the House bill will “sink” in the Senate, describing it as “the Titanic” and arguing it does not do enough to reduce spending or address the deficit.
Ron Johnson and others are actively working to ensure its defeat, calling instead for smaller, more targeted bills rather than a single massive package.
Senate Republicans have indicated they want to break up the House bill into “bite-sized pieces,” suggesting that the comprehensive approach taken by the House is a “mistake” and unlikely to pass in the upper chamber. There is also significant criticism from fiscal watchdogs and Senate staff that the bill would increase deficits and debt, rather than reduce them.
Big bills like this are obscene.
I’d love to see Congress start to chunk things down again.
Stupid bastards better pass the Bill intact or the country will fail
Let’s save the nation first with this bill
The Senate GOP needs to get its act together; letting the 2017 tax cuts lapse is not an option, it’s a November 2026 death sentence.
Massive overspending isn’t saving any nation.
Massive overspending isn’t saving any nation.
Expected, GOP screws it up, again.
The whole point of the Big Beautiful Bill was that it would go through the reconciliation process that requires only a majority vote in the Senate to pass.
This proposal is actually a backhanded attempt to derail President Trump's agenda.
-PJ
Get the more controversial parts passed now.
Never trusted Thune.
Here's the dilemma:
Reconciliation can be used once per year for each of a spending bill, a revenue, bill, and a debt limit bill. Those subjects can be combined into one bill but it will use up each category.
If President Trump’s bill is not addressing debt relief in this bill, it's likely because they are saving that for another reconciliation bill to follow.
It appears that the strategy is to use reconciliation to shut the Democrats out of the process, and any attempt to split up bills or expand its scope would nullify reconciliation and bring the Democrats back to the table to invoke minority powers to stop President Trump’s agenda.
-PJ
I....or you....could write a better bill than what passes as a bill in DC. This is all so ridiculous.
FYI the 2017 tax cuts are to be permanent, meaning the current tax rate stays put.
The no taxes on tips or overtime addition . . . THOSE HAVE AN EXPIRATION DATE, just like the original 2017 cuts did.
These guys are not capable of understanding compound interest. The growth in deficit ACCELERATES the growth in debt, and given today’s credit rating reduction, the interest on that debt will rise and consume more and more spending.
Yes, interest on the debt IS SPENDING. It’s part of this year’s $7 Trillion spending. Of that $7T only about $1T billion is discretionary and not declared protected (like DoD). That’s why you’re getting cuts of 30-40% on programs, particularly SNAP and Housing.
Make no mistake here. Those programs have fraud and waste, but it isn’t 40% waste. These cuts are not going to pass. You want cuts, you have to go into mandatory, and DoD.
That's it. The Hill found a RINO willing to talk, but NOT be quoted. LOL!
Sounds like Russiagate all over again...
I’d like to see smaller bills someday soon, balanced budget, decreased debt etc.
This big beautiful bill is a necessary prerequisite for those things to happen. If we don’t fund the things in this bill there is no leverage or funding to close the border, remove illegal aliens, rebuild the military, modernize air traffic control equipment or a host of other things many of which begin to reduce waste, fraud & spending. Any senator who does not work with the caucus to pass the best BBB they can will be primaried and I will happily advance the fortunes of their opponent.
“There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune”. If these opportunities are missed, one’s life may be “bound in shallows and in miseries,”
Most budget estimates ignore the Laffer curve—and treat it like a flat line.
https://onlinecoursesblog.hillsdale.edu/deep-dive-understanding-the-laffer-curve/
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