Conservative fiscal hawks in the Senate are warning that President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” may be dead on arrival in the upper chamber if the GOP conference does not agree to incorporate steeper spending cuts.
Senate Republicans are facing a critical four week stretch to pass the president’s sweeping tax and spending bill by a July 4 deadline floated by Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Trump administration officials. Deficit-concerned Senate Republicans are calling on Senate GOP leadership to agree to more aggressive spending reductions in the president’s landmark bill than the roughly 1.6 trillion secured by House Republicans.
“There’s no chance it could pass the Senate right now,” Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee said during a Wednesday appearance on “The Charlie Kirk Show.”
Thune can spare just three Republican votes to pass the budget bill given Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer’s pledge that every Democratic senator will vote “no.”
Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who frequently breaks with his party on fiscal issues and foreign affairs, has warned he will oppose the House-drafted bill, citing its inclusion of a $4 trillion increase in the debt ceiling. The president sharply criticized the GOP lawmaker in a Truth Social post Saturday, arguing “Rand will be playing right into the hands of Democrats” if he votes against the budget bill. Trump also raised the possibility of a “first time ever” default on the national debt if Paul votes “no” on the bill.
Paul also told CBS News “Face The Nation” Sunday that three other Senate Republicans would likely join him in blocking the legislation if changes to make the bill more fiscally responsible are not added to the bill.
Though Lee and Republican Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Mike Lee of Utah have emphasized that they want to pass the president’s legislative agenda and prevent a $4.5 trillion tax increase on a majority of Americans, the senators have cautioned that they cannot vote for the bill as currently written without more aggressive spending reform.
Johnson, who has suggested that he may not seek reelection in 2028 and will be unswayed by political pressure from the president, has gone further in expressing his opposition to the bill than his Republican colleagues, citing the urgency to change the country’s fiscal trajectory.
“We’re mortgaging our children’s future. It’s wrong. It’s immoral. It has to stop,” Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on Sunday. “We’re $37 trillion [in debt].”
“The only figure we ever heard about was 1.5 trillion [in spending cuts],” Johnson added, referring to the House savings in the president’s landmark bill. “Sounds like a lot, but when you put it in context of the $89 trillion we’re going to spend over the next 20 years — the $22 trillion in additional deficit we’re going to incur — that’s $2.2 trillion per-year deficit. It’s completely unsustainable.”
Johnson is also advocating for a return to pre-pandemic spending and a line-by-line review of the federal budget to identify other areas to cut spending. He has stated that the House-passed bill will “almost certainly add to our deficits and debt.”
Speaker Mike Johnson, who is working to persuade the Senate to make minimal changes to the House-drafted legislation, has dismissed projections showing the president’s landmark bill will increase budget deficits and add to the national debt.
“It’s not going to add to the debt,” Johnson told NBC News’ Kristen Welker on Sunday. “We are going to spur on tremendous economic growth here. And so you’re going to have a higher job participation numbers in the economy, you’re going to have higher wages, more jobs provided.”
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