WASHINGTON — Republicans are racing to send a massive tax and spending bill to President Donald Trump’s desk by the July Fourth holiday despite deep intraparty misgivings in both chambers of Congress about how it would bust open the federal debt and make politically unpopular cuts to health care for the poor.
Republican leadership is essentially telling GOP critics of Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill to put up or shut up, daring them to stand in the way of the president’s signature (and only) legislative priority: a tax cut package for the mostly wealthy totaling over $4 trillion paid in part by raiding the social safety net.
“We have a lot of independent-thinking senators,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday. “At the end of the day, we have a process that not everyone is going to get what they want.”
“Everybody has to say yes or no,” he added. “When push comes to shove, you’re looking at whether you would allow the perfect to become the enemy of the good.”
Thune wants the Senate to vote on its version of the bill this week, and then kick it back to the House for final approval before sending the bill to Trump’s desk.
