WASHINGTON – Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote President Donald Trump needed for the Senate to pass his “big, beautiful” bill 51-50 on Tuesday and send it back to the House with some changes.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota couldn’t persuade Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Susan Collins of Maine, to vote in favor of the bill.
For the dissenters, the deal breakers were a deficit that could increase the national debt and $1.2 trillion in cuts on Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, healthcare and food programs for the poor.
While Sens. Ashley Moody and Rick Scott were among the 50 Republicans who voted in support of the bill, Scott lobbied for an amendment that would have further cut Medicaid in 2031. It didn’t get a Senate vote.
“This bill delivers on our promise to secure the border and protect Americans from Biden’s open border crisis and to better equip our military to protect our freedoms,” Scott said in a statement.
The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan agency, estimated the bill included $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and $350 billion allocated to national security, including immigration law enforcement.
“I just think we delivered for the president,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said. “We gave our House colleagues a better bill than we found.”
The bill also includes cuts to tax credit incentives for renewable energy but will exempt some projects. Democrats feared this could increase the cost of utilities.
The bill will return to the House for final legislative approval. Democrats fear that if the bill passes into law it will cost American lives.
“I think it’s going to do very well in the House,” Trump said. “We will see how that works out, but it looks like it’s ahead of schedule.”
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