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Senate Republicans have passed President Donald Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” a sprawling legislative package that is expected to kick millions off their health insurance, codify big tax cuts for the wealthy, give a massive funding boost to the administration’s mass deportation efforts, and screw over the nation’s poor with cuts to social services.
“This was an incredible victory for the American people,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters after the vote went final.
The vote was 50-50, but Vice President J.D. Vance broke the tie. Republican Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) broke with their party and voted no on the legislation. Tillis announced earlier this week that he would not be seeking reelection after Trump said he would work to primary him amid his opposition to the bill.
On Monday, Tillis bashed the legislation as a “bill will betray the promise Donald Trump made.”
“I’m telling the president that you have been misinformed,” he said. “You supporting the Senate mark will hurt people who are eligible and qualified for Medicaid.”
In a floor speech delivered over the weekend, Paul emphasized that his opposition to the bill stemmed from the predicted $4 trillion it would add to the national deficit over the next decade. “Maybe we have to judge the effects of the Big Not-So-Beautiful Bill by looking at what happens to the debt,” he said. “We’re adding $2 trillion [to the debt ceiling] this year, but the authors of the bill are anticipating adding more than $2 trillion next year. That doesn’t sound at all conservative to me and that’s why I’m a ‘no.’”
Trump celebrated the bill’s passage on Truth Social, writing that the “biggest winner of all” is the American people, before pushing a series of false claims about the legislation, including that Medicaid is “not being cut.” The president called for the House to unite so that that he can sign the bill before the Fourth of July. “GET IT DONE!” he wrote.
The bill will now be returned to the House of Representatives for passage with amendment, and then sent to the desk of President Donald Trump, who has demanded Congress pass his signature legislation by the Fourth of July.
In a statement issued on social media, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote: “The House will work quickly to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill that enacts President Trump’s full America First agenda by the Fourth of July.”
“This bill is President Trump’s agenda, and we are making it law. House Republicans are ready to finish the job and put the One Big Beautiful Bill on President Trump’s desk in time for Independence Day,” Johnson added.
Happy birthday, America.
