As the clock ticked into Tuesday morning, the U.S. Senate found itself entrenched in a grueling overnight session, with Republican leaders scrambling to salvage consensus around President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending overhaul, a 940-page package dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” Despite a long stretch of debate, amendment battles, and late-night negotiations, the bill’s future remains uncertain.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune is caught between two wings of his party: moderates uneasy about proposed Medicaid cuts and conservatives demanding even deeper reductions to shrink the deficit. Thune appeared briefly optimistic, telling reporters they were in the “homestretch,” only to temper expectations shortly after by admitting progress was “elusive.”
Across the Capitol, House Speaker Mike Johnson warned of turbulence ahead, saying the Senate’s version could face resistance when it returns to the House. “I have prevailed upon my Senate colleagues to please, please, please keep it as close to the House product as possible,” Johnson said in an AP report. The House passed its own version last month, but discontent among lawmakers prompted Republican leaders to summon members back to Washington ahead of Trump’s self-imposed July 4th deadline.
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The Republican-controlled Congress is under intense pressure to deliver a legislative win for the president, who took to social media at midnight to call the measure “perhaps the greatest and most important of its kind.” Vice President JD Vance echoed the urgency, posting simply: “Pass the bill.”
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But with slim margins in both chambers, GOP leaders have little room to maneuver. Thune can afford to lose no more than three Republican votes. Two senators, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky, have already signaled opposition. Tillis cited concerns over Medicaid access and rural health care, while Paul opposes the bill’s debt ceiling hike. After facing pressure from Trump, Tillis abruptly announced he won’t seek reelection.
Focus has turned to key moderates Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. Both have expressed deep concern over health care cuts, while a conservative faction, including Senators Rick Scott, Mike Lee, Ron Johnson, and Cynthia Lummis, continues to push for more aggressive spending reductions. Just before midnight, they gathered in Thune’s office for closed-door talks.
Meanwhile, Democrats have seized every procedural tool to stall the bill’s momentum. Led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, they forced a full 16-hour reading of the text and introduced a flood of amendments aimed at exposing the bill’s most controversial elements.
“Republicans are in shambles because they know the bill is so unpopular,” Schumer said, highlighting a fresh analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO found that the bill would leave 11.8 million more Americans uninsured by 2034 and swell the federal deficit by nearly $3.3 trillion over a decade.
The legislation contains $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, including making Trump’s 2017 tax law permanent and adding new provisions such as eliminating taxes on tips. The package would also slash billions in green energy tax credits, a move Democrats argue would devastate wind and solar projects across the country.
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Health care and social welfare are at the center of the dispute. The bill imposes $1.2 trillion in cuts, primarily targeting Medicaid and food stamps, through tighter work requirements and reduced federal reimbursements. A proposed $25 billion fund for rural hospitals failed to gain traction, despite Collins’s attempt to double it. Murkowski, seeking exemptions for Alaskans, described the negotiations with one phrase: “Radio silence.”
Democratic Sen. Patty Murray voiced alarm over the GOP’s budget accounting. She said Republicans are using faulty assumptions by treating Trump’s 2017 tax cuts as “current policy” to avoid acknowledging their cost. “That kind of ‘magic math’ won’t fly with Americans trying to balance their own household books,” Murray said.
Complicating matters further, billionaire Elon Musk attacked Republicans online for supporting the bill’s $5 trillion debt ceiling increase, deriding them as “the PORKY PIG PARTY!!”
Inside the Senate, more than two dozen amendments were debated during a prolonged vote-a-rama, a marathon process that typically signals a bill’s final stretch. A few measures, like preserving Medicaid funds for rural hospitals or protecting food stamps, gained tepid Republican support but failed to pass.
Finance Committee Chair Sen. Mike Crapo brushed aside Democratic warnings, accusing them of deploying the “politics of fear.”
Still, few Republicans are wholly satisfied with the emerging bill, and with the deadline looming, the stakes continue to climb. Whether the fractured party can unite in time to meet Trump’s Fourth of July target remains an open question.
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