Senate Republicans narrowly pass Trump’s “big and beautiful” spending bill

After hours of stalemate, U.S. Senate Republicans narrowly passed Donald Trump’s taxes and spending, meaning the proposed legislation has cleared one of its major obstacles.

A large Beautiful Act passed through Vice President JD Vance for more than 24 hours of debate, voting for seven votes.

Now it’s back to the house or basement where it still faces more opposition. House Republicans cleared an earlier version of the single-ticket profit.

Trump gave Republican-controlled Congress a July 4 deadline, sending him a final version of the bill to sign the law.

“The bill passed,” Vance said Tuesday afternoon.

Controversy over the deficit, social planning and spending levels have already brought challenges for Republicans, hindering progress and prompting Trump to admit it was “hard” to meet his deadline for passing the bill.

Despite efforts to inspire his party, Senate Majority Leader John Thune lost three Republicans in a narrow vote—Susan Collins of Maine, Torres of North Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Collins, Tillis and Paul voted against the bill with all Democrats.

After several days of negotiations, Republican leaders were finally able to get the support of Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski.

Even after voting for the bill, Merkowski remained unhappy with the bill and described the process as “rushing” and under a “man-made timeline.”

“I struggled with the most vulnerable influence of this country,” said Merkowski, adding that the process “is probably the most difficult and painful legislative period of her career.”

“I hope this house will look at it and realize we are not there yet,” she told reporters outside the Senate floor just a moment after the vote.

Murkowski’s support scored a final Senate vote of 50-50 and prompted Vance to step in his tiebreak.

Trump celebrated the passage of the bill during his visit to immigration detention centers in Florida. “It’s a great bill,” he said. “Everyone has something.”

The legislation, considered the cornerstone of Trump’s second term agenda, will allow him to temporarily implement large-scale tax cuts when he first took office.

To compensate for expected loss of income, Republicans want to reduce spending on various programs, including food subsidies and health care for low-income Americans.

The vote was held Tuesday afternoon, ending a whirlwind voting meeting on Capitol Hill.

Democrats are trying to build their muscles by targeting procedural barriers to delay the bill’s passage.

This included requiring Senate staff to read all 940 pages of the bill aloud and launching a long debate process on the proposed amendment in the so-called “Vote-Moama”.

Now, House Republicans approve changes to the Senate before the president signs the bill.

However, its fate remains uncertain because it opposes from different angles, and Republicans can only afford three votes.

A group of fiscally conservative hawks have shown that they are upset with the amount of the Senate proposal that may have increased the U.S. national deficit – a reference to the difference between the government’s spending annually and the difference in income.

According to the Right-wing Housing Freedom Caucus, the Senate proposal could increase by $65 billion (£472 million) per year. “This is not a financial responsibility,” the caucus member said in a social media post on Monday. “It’s not what we agree with.”

Meanwhile, other House Republicans fear Senate legislation would steeper Medicaid health insurance plans for low-income Americans than they approved.

Democrats in both Congress also criticized the proposed welfare cuts.

Republicans in the House will fight against previous deadlines before the President’s July 4 deadline.

Trump told reporters when he left the White House and headed for Florida: “I really want to do July 4, but I think it’s hard to do it.”

Other critics of the program include tech billionaire Elon Musk, who helped Trump win the White House last year and served as Trump’s cost-cutting czar.

Musk is now actively working to undermine Trump’s chances of survival in his signature legislation and threaten to establish a new party if the bill clears Congress.

On Monday, he threatened to support the challenger who voted for Republicans.

“Every member of Congress running to reduce government spending and then immediately vote for the biggest debt increase in history should be ashamed!” Musk wrote on X.

The bill severely reduces government support for renewable energy and electric vehicles could hurt a company’s bottom line, and Musk has made some fortunes, Tesla.