The US Senate passed a drastic tax bill defended by President Donald Trump, sending controversial laws to the House as it was a final vote.
Lawmakers passed the bill on Tuesday with a 51-50 vote in the Republican-controlled chamber after Vice President JD Vance defeated his tie.
A successful vote ended the marathon’s 27-hour debate debate. Three Republicans worked with Democrats to vote against the bill. This would disgrace many of Trump’s signature policies, including tax cuts in 2017, reduced social safety net programs, and increased spending on border enforcement and deportation.
Critics on both sides of the aisle are aiming for an estimated $3.3 trillion that the bill adds to its national debt.
Others have cut back on programs such as Medicaid and the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). They argue that the bill will strip low-income families of support, primarily to fund tax cuts that help the wealthy.
But Trump is calling for the bill to be passed by July 4th, the country’s Independence Day. The legislation, unofficially known as “One Big Beautiful Bill,” is now back home for Wednesday’s vote in the updated version.
The president discovered the Senate passing in the middle of a press conference in South Florida, where he touted crackdown on immigrants.
Despite the close odds of the home, Trump spoke optimistic about the upcoming vote.
“I think it’s going to be really good at home,” Trump said. “I think it’s actually easier in the House than in the Senate.”
The president also downplayed one of the bill’s most controversial provisions. It is cutting back on Medicaid, a government health insurance program for low-income households. If the bill becomes law, it is expected that around 11.8 million people will lose their health insurance over the next few years.
“I say it’s going to be a very fewer number than that, and all that number will be waste, fraud, abuse,” Trump said.
Senate criticism
Trump was not the only Republican celebrating the passage of the omnibus bill. In the Senate, Republican John Toon promoted the bill as a victory for American workers.
“It’s been a long way to get to today,” Thune said from the Senate floor. “We’re here now and forever extending tax easing for hardworking Americans.”
But not all Republicans were passionate about the bill. Three party members, Tom Tillis of North Carolina, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Susan Collins of Maine – all voted against the passage. And even in a critical vote in favor, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski appeared to express her later regrets.
“Do I like this bill? No,” she told an NBC News reporter. “I know there are Americans in many parts of this country that don’t benefit this bill. I don’t like it.”
She later took her to social media and criticized the rush in the aisle. “Don’t make yourself a child. This was a terrible process. A desperate rush to meet the artificial deadlines that tested all the restrictions of this institution.”
Meanwhile, Chuck Schumer, a top Senate Democrat, said the Republicans “betrayed the American people and covered the Senate in utter embarrassment.”
“On the other hand, Republicans have passed the biggest billionaires tax cuts paid by tearing health care from millions of people,” Schumer said.
Still, Schumer announced one iconic victory on Tuesday, writing on social media platform X that Trump’s law’s name, “One Big Beautiful Bill,” was hit from the official title.
Republicans now control the Senate, House and White House, and own three regiments in the US government, reducing legislative power to Democrats.
However, Republicans have a narrow majority in Congress, leading to uncertainty about the fate of the bill. The Senate holds 53 of the 100 seats in the Chamber of Commerce. In the House of Representatives, where the bill is currently heading, there is a majority of 220 Democrats 212 representatives.
“It’s not a financial responsibility.”
Therefore, this bill could face a thin margin of razors in the home. The early version passed on May 22nd was a Republican vote in his spare time only.
House Freedom Caucus is a hard-line conservative group that continues to ba with the bill’s high tag, allowing it to drive deeper spending cuts in the coming days.
“The Senate version adds $651 billion to the deficit. That’s before the interest expense, which is almost twice the total,” the Caucus wrote in a statement Monday.
“It’s not financial responsibility. That’s not something we agree with.”
Billionaire Elon Musk, the billionaire who helped push Trump to victory in the 2024 presidential election, was also a voice opposition to the bill.
“What’s the point when you keep raising your debt cap?” Musk asked on social media on Tuesday. “All I’m asking is that we won’t let America go bankrupt.”
Musk threatened to fund key challenges for Republicans who support the bill, and raised more on Monday to launch a new political party in the United States.
But Trump sidelined Musk’s criticism in response to the elimination of the tax credits for electric vehicles. The billionaire owns Tesla, one of the most well-known manufacturers.
The president also threatened to strip billionaires of their subsidies using the Office of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that found masks.
“Doge is a monster that might have to go back and eat Elon,” Trump said as he traveled to Florida.
In a report from Washington, D.C., Al Jazeera correspondent Alan Fisher said public support is slipping as clearer photos of the bill emerged.
“This has been talked about for a long time, and the more details are released, the less Americans will support him,” Fisher said.
Several recent polls show that the majority of Americans are opposed to the bill. For example, in a Quinnipiac University survey last week, only 29% of respondents supported the law, while 55% opposed it.
Increases citizens’ debt
Currently, the current form of law cuts the 2017 permanent Trump cuts and personal income taxes, and is expected to expire by the end of the year.
It also offers new tax cuts on tips and income earned through overtime, a policy Trump put into effect during his 2024 campaign.
At the same time, the bill will provide hundreds of billions of dollars to Trump’s crackdown on immigrants. The bill also builds the government’s capacity to pay more immigration agents, detain people quickly and deport them.
Beyond cutting the tax credits for electric vehicles, the bill guts some of former President Joe Biden’s wind and solar energy incentives.
Faced with criticism about the knock-on effect of low-income families, Republicans have rebutted that new restrictions on Medicaid and SNAP, previously known as food stamps, will help put the program on a more sustainable path.
Many Republicans have rejected the assessment that the Congressional Budget Office law would add $3.3 trillion to its already $36.2 trillion in debt.
Meanwhile, non-partisan analysts say that increased debt could slow economic growth, raise borrowing costs and crowd other government spending in the coming years.
