The US Senate has taken a significant step towards passing President Donald Trump‘s “Big Beautiful Bill,” a sweeping tax cut and spending bill that has sparked intense debate. The bill cleared its first procedural hurdle in a narrow 51-49 vote on Saturday, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. This development sets the stage for further deliberations and potential changes to the bill before it is presented to the President for signature.
The bill, also known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” is a 940-page package that includes substantial provisions, including a $150 billion boost to military spending, funding for mass deportations, and construction of a border wall.
According to Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington, DC, the bill’s passage is uncertain, given the opposition from all Democrats and some Republicans. “The other issue is that there are 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats in the Senate. Now all the Democrats are opposed to the bill. That means every single Republican vote will count,” Hanna noted.
The bill proposes significant cuts to Medicare and the Clean Energy funding program to finance the increased military spending and border wall construction. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer criticized the bill, saying Republicans unveiled it “in the dead of night” and are rushing to finish it before the public fully understands its implications.
Schumer forced a full reading of the text in the Senate, which would take an estimated 15 hours. “Future generations will be saddled with trillions in debt. Debt is abstract, but what does it mean for the average American? Raising your costs, raising your costs to buy a home, raising your costs to buy a car, raising your costs on credit card bills,” Schumer asked.
The bill faces stiff opposition from Democrats and some Republicans, who are concerned about its impact on the national debt, Medicaid, and low-income families. Nonpartisan analysts estimate that the bill would add trillions to the $36.2 trillion US government debt and lead to a historic redistribution of wealth from the poorest 10% of Americans to the richest. The bill’s Medicaid cuts would threaten rural hospitals and deprive an estimated 8.6 million Americans of healthcare.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who had a public falling out with Trump over the bill, called the package “utterly insane and destructive.” “The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country,” Musk wrote on X. “It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.” He later posted that the bill would be “political suicide for the Republican Party.”
The bill’s passage in the Senate is just the first step, and it will need to be approved by the House of Representatives before it can be signed into law. Given the opposition and controversy surrounding the bill, its future remains uncertain. Trump has urged Republicans to skip their holiday vacations and deliver the bill by July 4, the US Independence Day. The Senate will continue to debate and refine the bill in the coming days, with the fate of the “Big Beautiful Bill” hanging in the balance.