The “Big and Beautiful” budget spending bill led by President Trump narrowly passed the Senate at noon on Tuesday. Vice President J.D. Vance cast a key vote to break the deadlock, allowing the bill to be passed by 51 votes to 50, an important step in trying to get Trump to sign the bill this week.
Three Republican senators from Maine, Susan Collins, Kentucky, and North Carolina, Thom Tillis, voted against the bill; Tillis announced this week that he would not run for re-election, creating opportunities for the Democratic Party in the 2026 midterm elections.
This bill is regarded as the core political achievement of the Republican Party for next year’s midterm elections, especially when the Senate seats are tight and the House of Representatives barely has a majority of 220 seats to 212 seats.
The bill includes extending Trump’s 2017 tax reform measures, adding new tax incentives such as “tax exemption for tips” and “tax exemption for overtime”, significantly reforming the social welfare system, increasing border security and defense budgets, and raising the federal debt ceiling by $5 trillion.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said: “This is to continue the tax cuts and ensure that the American people are not hit by the tax burden after the tax reform expires at the end of 2025.”
Before the vote, the Republican Party experienced a nearly 24-hour marathon vote on the amendment proposal. Thune and Whip John Barrasso and others ran all night to try to convince hesitant party colleagues; around 1 a.m., Thune had closed-door consultations with several fiscal hawks. When asked, he only said coldly: “Progress? This word is not easy to define.”
Lisa Murkowski from Alaska became the focus. The leadership has negotiated with her for several days, including adding tax incentives for whaling captains, trying to reduce the bill’s medical and economic impact on Alaska, but some proposals were rejected for violating Senate rules of procedure, making her position unclear.
At the same time, Paul, who firmly opposed raising the debt limit, was seen as the most difficult vote to convince. However, three other fiscal conservatives, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah, and Rick Scott of Florida, ultimately voted in favor. They reportedly met with Trump several times and held a final round of talks with Schoen on Sunday night.
In the meeting, Schoen promised to support a Medicaid reform plan proposed by Scott to adjust the federal subsidy rate for some beneficiaries starting in 2031; in exchange, the senators agreed to push the bill into the debate process. However, the amendment was not voted on in the end due to the clear opposition of some members of the party.
Republicans originally expected the Senate to water down the Medicaid reform in the House version, but in fact, the Senate Finance Committee further reduced the subsidy tax rate cap for expansion states instead of just freezing it.
This bill has been brewing for a long time, starting with the first meeting between Republican senators and Trump camp officials convened by Barrasso in early 2024. The Republicans on the Finance Committee then held several rounds of closed-door talks to develop a version that complies with the “budget reconciliation process” to avoid being blocked by the Democrats with filibusters.
Xiong En and House Speaker Mike Johnson have been interacting intensively for several months to coordinate tactics to promote the bill; now it is Johnson’s turn to convince some members of the House of Representatives to accept this bill with far-reaching political and financial implications.
The Democrats are also preparing to use the content that the Republicans themselves question as a weapon to attack their opponents in next year’s election. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said: “The American people will not forget what the Republicans did in the Senate today.”
He said: “My colleague from North Carolina (note: referring to Republican Tillis) has told the truth, and I guess more than half of the Republicans in the Senate actually agree with him. But only he dared to speak out, and the others chose to remain silent.”
