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Politico
4 days ago
- Business
- Politico
Senate Republicans cool to Finance Committee's tax plan
Senate GOP leaders are facing early pushback over a key plank of their 'big, beautiful bill' just hours after rolling it out, underscoring the work that remains to bring the legislation to the floor next week. Signs of discontent within the Republican Conference came as Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo privately briefed his colleagues Monday night on his portion of the megabill central to enacting key elements of President Donald Trump's domestic agenda. Crapo's committee is responsible for some of the most politically consequential components of the party-line package, including changes to Medicaid, the fate of clean-energy energy tax credits and the state-and-local tax deduction that is important to high-tax state House Republicans. The briefing Monday was designed to explain the panel's rationale, answer questions and alleviate any anxieties. But immediate reaction from lawmakers across the ideological spectrum upon that meeting's conclusion indicated leadership has a ways to go — especially as Republicans still hope to meet their self-imposed July Fourth deadline for clearing the larger bill for Trump's signature. 'We're not doing anything to significantly alter the course of the financial future of this country,' Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told reporters Monday evening, adding that the current Senate Finance proposal 'does not meet the moment' and that he would vote no if it came to the floor as is. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who has drawn public red lines over any overhauls to Medicaid resulting in potential losses in benefits, described himself as 'alarmed' by the committee's new plan, which would go further than the House bill on making changes to the health care safety net program. 'This needs a lot of work. It's really concerning and I'm really surprised by it. … I'd be really interested to see what the president thinks of it,' said Hawley, who has previously said that Trump personally told him the bill should not cut Medicaid benefits. Senate Republicans agreed to nothing in the Monday night meeting, according to attendees, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Crapo both emphasizing that Republicans were engaged in an ongoing negotiation — both among themselves and with their House counterparts, who passed their version of the megabill last month. Thune afterward summed up his message to the conference as: 'We gotta get this done.' Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), in describing Crapo and Thune's messaging at the briefing, said, 'They're really patient. They are listening to everyone's ideas. And they're still working on it — it's still a work in progress.' Crapo's bill would, among other things, scale back some of Trump's campaign promises on creating new tax breaks for tips and overtime. He is also seeking to soften the House-passed bill's endowment tax hike and include a smaller increase on the Child Tax Credit. Senators also pitched Crapo and Thune at the Monday meeting on their own ideas about what they still want to see in the bill. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), a member of leadership, said the meeting 'wasn't hostile' but lawmakers told Crapo and Thune, 'I've got questions.'' Lankford added, 'Some people were like, 'I want to go even more.' … But somebody else would step up and say, 'that's already farther than I want to be able to go.'' Thune wants to put the bill on the floor next week, when he can only lose three GOP senators and still ensure the measure's passage. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is widely expected to vote 'no.' And based on the early reaction to both the tax portion of the megabill, Thune still has work to do to shore up his whip count elsewhere, too. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who shares Johnson's concerns about spending too much and not reducing the deficit enough, said he also doesn't believe the emerging Senate megabill framework goes far enough on Medicaid. Scott suggested that lawmakers should reconsider attaching a provision to the bill that would scale back the 90 percent of Medicaid expansion costs covered by the federal government. This policy change would yield major savings to offset the legislation's heavy price tag, but was deemed too politically toxic to follow through on in the House. 'The only way this is going to get fixed is — we've got to say the 90-10 match doesn't make any sense,' Scott said after the closed-door meeting. Elsewhere in the conference, Hawley and other Senate Republicans are squeamish about the Senate Finance plan to draw down the provider tax and how that would impact funding for rural hospitals. Many states use this tax to help fund their Medicaid programs. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine largely declined to comment as she left the meeting, but asked if she still had concerns about the provider tax, she said: 'Yes, I do.' And while she credited leadership with consulting closely with her as they drafted the Finance draft text, conceded they didn't heed her on every demand: 'Sometimes yes, sometimes no.' The Senate Finance Committee text released Monday also would soften the House version's phaseout of Biden-era clean-energy tax credits, where members of the House Freedom Caucus won eleventh-hour concessions from leadership to pursue more aggressive rollbacks of the green incentives. The Senate panel's proposed language would constitute its own concession to some purple-state and moderate Republicans who have warned that the House bill would undercut businesses that have already made investments based on certainty around the climate law subsidies. But GOP leadership's attempts to find a middle ground sparked public pushback from Sen. Mike Lee, with the Utah Republican writing on X, 'Extending these subsidies beyond the Trump administration effectively makes them permanent Who else did *not* vote for that?' Complicating matters: It's not just Senate Republicans who are crying foul over details of the Senate Finance proposal. House Republicans are warning, too, that the committee's initial draft text that put the SALT dedication cap at $10,000 is a nonstarter in their chamber, where Speaker Mike Johnson cut a deal to raise it to $40,000. Republicans tried to mollify their House counterparts Monday by noting that their initial offer was just a stand-in as they continue discussing a different cap all sides could live with. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said that he had also been in touch that very day with Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), who panned the Senate proposal as 'dead on arrival.' 'That was just a placeholder,' Mullin said. 'I talked to Mike about it. We understand.' House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.), in a social media post late Monday, offered congratulations to Crapo on his chamber's opening bid. 'We've worked closely together for months to reach agreement on key provisions, while understanding the work that remains to be done to achieve consensus between both chambers of Congress and get this bill on the President's desk,' said the House's chief tax writer. 'We will thread that needle to respect the needs of both bodies in the days ahead. Benjamin Guggenheim contributed to this report.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
House Republicans warn Thune over megabill 'budget gimmicks'
Thirty-eight House Republicans are warning Senate leaders against using "budget gimmicks" as they revise President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill,' adding a new red line as GOP lawmakers clash over the scope of tax cuts. The Republicans, led by House Budget Vice Chair Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.), told Senate Majority Leader John Thune in a letter Tuesday that 'that any additional tax cuts" in the party's megabill "must be matched dollar for-dollar by real, enforceable spending reductions.' House lawmakers who signed the letter include Republican Conference Vice Chair Blake Moore of Utah, House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington of Texas and House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris of Maryland. It's the latest power play orchestrated by Smucker, who in May successfully mobilized 32 colleagues to compel House leadership to commit to finding additional spending cuts to meet overarching deficit reduction targets — if Republicans also enact additional tax cuts in their larger domestic policy package. Smucker's new letter, obtained first by POLITICO, is now seeking to squeeze the other chamber as Thune and his top lieutenants are scrambling to strike a balance between making changes to the House-passed product that senators can support without losing the necessary votes across the Capitol. 'We recognize the Senate will have its own say to make changes to the bill, and we welcome amendments that increase verifiable savings and make the overall package even more sustainable,' the House Republicans wrote in their letter, sent Tuesday to Thune. 'Additional spending reduction strengthens the bill and the nation alike. What cannot change is the architecture established by the House framework.' Specifically, Smucker and his allies want Thune to adhere to the same structure of the House bill, while also disavowing accounting tactics like 'timing shifts' to artificially reduce the cost of the bill and instead find 'genuine savings.' 'Pairing tax relief with spending restraint preserves investor confidence, reins in interest costs, and maximizes economic growth from the bill,' the members said. In both the House and the Senate, Republican leaders can only lose three votes and still pass the measure along party lines. Senate Republicans are mulling significant changes to the House-passed border, energy and tax package, central to enacting President Donald Trump's vast legislative agenda, that would inevitably increase the measure's deficit impact. Thune is fielding concerns from an ideologically diverse group of senators looking to scale back the House's Medicaid cuts, a major source of cost-savings. At the same time, Senate Finance Republicans are mounting a big push to make three business tax cuts permanent, which would add hundreds of billions in red ink. But the House Republicans are also reminding Thune about an amendment crafted by Smucker to the budget resolution, which set parameters for the massive domestic policy package in the House. That amendment tied the amount of tax cuts to spending cuts in the legislation. For instance, if House Republicans were to settle on slashing spending by $1.5 trillion, then they can enact tax cuts worth no more than $4 trillion. The tax cuts enacted by the House-passed bill currently amount to around $3.8 trillion, according to the latest estimate from the Joint Committee on Taxation. 'A reconciliation bill that relaxes fiscal discipline reflected in the House-passed bill would invite higher borrowing costs and undermine the economic growth that Americans need to maximize opportunity,' the new letter to Thune reads. House Republicans aren't the only ones anxious. Deficit hawks in the Senate, like Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, are closely watching the bond markets, which experienced significant volatility after the House passed the domestic policy legislation in May. It's a sign that investors are likely also worried the GOP's marquee legislation could worsen the nation's fiscal trajectory. 'The bond market's pretty forward-looking, so I think we've already seen the reaction,' said Johnson, who is pushing for deeper spending cuts in the bill, in a brief interview on Monday. 'To the extent we can improve, it might react positively.'
Politico
10-06-2025
- Business
- Politico
House Republicans warn Thune over megabill ‘budget gimmicks'
Thirty-eight House Republicans are warning Senate leaders against using 'budget gimmicks' as they revise President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' adding a new red line as GOP lawmakers clash over the scope of new tax cuts. The Republicans, led by House Budget Vice Chair Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.), told Senate Majority Leader John Thune in a letter Tuesday that 'that any additional tax cuts' in the party's megabill 'must be matched dollar for-dollar by real, enforceable spending reductions.' House lawmakers who signed the letter include Republican Conference Vice Chair Blake Moore of Utah, House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington of Texas and House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris of Maryland. It's the latest power play orchestrated by Smucker, who in May successfully mobilized 32 colleagues to compel House leadership to commit to finding additional spending cuts to meet overarching deficit reduction targets — if Republicans also enact additional tax cuts in their larger domestic policy package. Smucker's new letter, obtained first by POLITICO, is now seeking to squeeze the other chamber as Thune and his top lieutenants are scrambling to strike a balance between making changes to the House-passed product that senators can support without losing the necessary votes across the Capitol. 'We recognize the Senate will have its own say to make changes to the bill, and we welcome amendments that increase verifiable savings and make the overall package even more sustainable,' the House Republicans wrote in their letter, sent Tuesday to Thune. 'Additional spending reduction strengthens the bill and the nation alike. What cannot change is the architecture established by the House framework.' Specifically, Smucker and his allies want Thune to adhere to the same structure of the House bill, while also disavowing accounting tactics like 'timing shifts' to artificially reduce the cost of the bill and instead find 'genuine savings.' 'Pairing tax relief with spending restraint preserves investor confidence, reins in interest costs, and maximizes economic growth from the bill,' the members said. In both the House and the Senate, Republican leaders can only lose three votes and still pass the measure along party lines.
Int'l Business Times
04-06-2025
- Business
- Int'l Business Times
Republicans Forced to Do Damage Control, Calm Down Lawmakers After Elon Musk Slams 'Big, Beautiful Bill' Supporters: Report
Leaders of the Republican Party are scrambling to settle other party members after billionaire Elon Musk launched a scathing criticism of the Trump-backed GOP spending bill. Speaker Mike Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Senate Majority Leader John Thune are attempting to quell uncertainty amongst congressmen from their party caused by Musk's rebuke of the "one big, beautiful bill." Johnson attempted to reassure Republican lawmakers during a House Republican Conference which occurred behind closed doors on Wednesday, three sources who were present at the meeting told POLITICO. Furthermore, the Speaker of the House has been in contact with the Tesla CEO and has attempted to explain the reasoning behind the spending bill in an attempt to garner Musk's support. "I think he's flat wrong, and I've told him as much," Johnson said at a news conference after the meeting. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters that he did not expect Musk's comments to sway Senate Republicans on Wednesday. "Obviously he has some influence, got a big following on social media," he said. "But at the end of the day this is a 51-vote exercise here in the Senate, and I think it's going to be the question for our members is going to be would you prefer the alternative. And the alternative isn't a good one." Thune also stated that he had been in contact with Musk within the past few days. "There are going to be a lot of people who share commentary about this, and we just got to make sure we're doing everything we can to get our arguments out there," Thune added. During an interview, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise stated that Musk's comments did not severely impact the party's ability to raise funds or garner support, further stating that the GOP is "continuing to see fundraising goals get exceeded." "The speaker, myself, our whole team continues to exceed fundraising goals, because people know what's at stake next year," Scalise added. "And President Trump's all in, by the way, too, helping us hold the House. ... He's been our best, most effective deliverer of support." Originally published on Latin Times
UPI
22-05-2025
- Politics
- UPI
Trump legislative agenda bill: Medicaid cuts and tax breaks
1 of 3 | Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a press conference after a House Republican Conference meeting attended by President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D,C,m on Tuesday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo May 21 (UPI) -- Congress is pressing to pass President Donald Trump's legislative agenda bill ahead of Memorial Day, though some Republicans have objected to portions of it. The budget reconciliation bill, called the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," is 1,116 pages of legislation to fund Trump's broad agenda. Included is more than $150 billion in additional funding for defense, an extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, an increase in the maximum deduction individuals can take in state and local taxes and limitations on Medicaid eligibility. A nonpartisan analysis of the bill by the Congressional Budget Office estimated that it will add nearly $4 trillion to the national debt. "It's very important for people to understand why we're being so aggressive on the timetable and why this really is so important," House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday. "This is the vehicle through which we will deliver on the mandate the American people gave us during the last election. You're going to have historic savings for the American people, historic tax relief for American workers, historic investments in border security." Medicaid eligibility Changes to Medicaid funding and eligibility are the most contentious issues Congress is mulling. Changes include an estimated $792 billion in cuts in the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. It would be the largest cut to the program in its 60-year history. Alex Berrios, co-founder of Mi Vecino, a Latino community advocacy and outreach organization based in Florida, told UPI his organization urged former President Joe Biden's administration that more Medicaid funding was needed. Berrios met with that administration monthly to discuss the impact of the president's policies on the Latino community. "The services provided to the most vulnerable community members, the elderly that need medical assistance, they're not being provided in a way that's accessible to people," Berrios said. "When we're cutting costs and cutting prescription drug prices, but we're not hiring people with language skills or enough staff to handle the volume of calls, those are barriers of access for people not getting the care they need." Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, has argued that previous versions of the bill did not go far enough in Medicaid reform. After voting "present" on the bill during a House Budget Committee meeting Sunday, he posted on X that changes must be made for it to pass. "The bill does not yet meet the moment leaving almost half of the green new scam subsidies continuing," Roy posted. "More, it fails to end the Medicaid money laundering scam and perverse funding structure that provides seven times more federal dollars for each dollar of state spending for the able-bodied relative to the vulnerable." More than 71 million people were enrolled in Medicaid and 7.2 million in Children's Health Insurance Program Managed Care Access program, or CHIP, as of December, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research and policy institute, estimated that more than 15 million people would lose healthcare coverage and become uninsured due to the Medicaid cuts proposed. The bill proposes measures for work requirements to qualify for coverage. Adults between ages 19 and 64 who do not have children would be required to work at least 80 hours per month. A combination of community involvement and enrollment in an educational program at least half-time also can apply to these requirements. Recipients of benefits would be required to submit to eligibility screenings more frequently. Rather than the 12 months that they are typically allowed, they would be subject to screening every six months. Similar work requirements would apply to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits. A moratorium would be set on the secretary of Health and Human Services enacting the final rule on CHIP published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid through Jan. 1, 2035. The final rule is meant to increase access to health services with increased standards of timely care, increased workforce and limits on wait times. A federal ban on Medicaid and CHIP recipients receiving funding for gender transition procedures for minors is among added restrictions. Exceptions include puberty suppression or blocking drugs for the purpose of normalizing puberty when deemed medically necessary or a "verifiable disorder of sex development." The child tax credit will again increase temporarily, this time to $2,500 per child. A Social Security number is required to qualify. Tax breaks The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that the proposed tax cuts in the budget reconciliation bill will add as much as $5 trillion to the nation's debt in the next 10 years by decreasing federal tax revenues. The largest contributor to this plan is an extension of the tax cuts enacted as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which went into effect in 2018. In total, taxes across the board would decrease by $568.7 billion, or 11%, starting in fiscal year 2027. However, taxes on people who make $15,000 or less, the lowest income category, would increase by 18.7%, generating an additional $1 billion over the current law. Taxpayers who make $200,000-$500,000 would contribute $169.5 billion less than they do currently, while people who earn $1 million or more would contribute $96 billion less than at their current rate of taxation. The tax cuts, as proposed, are to be extended permanently, meaning they require congressional action to overturn. Among Trump's new tax policies are the plans to eliminate taxes on tips and overtime. Unlike the extension of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act cuts, these reductions are to expire in 2028. Qualifying tips are "any cash tip received by an individual in an occupation that traditionally and customarily received tips on or before December 2024." This does not apply to payments made that are not specified for a service trade or business. A Social Security number is required to make deductions based on tips. Where does the quote end here? Up to $10,000 in car loan interest is another new potential tax deduction. People with an adjusted gross income of less than $100,000 or married couples under $200,000 fit the eligibility requirements for this proposal, but only if the vehicle is assembled in the United States. Defense spending The budget reconciliation bill includes about $150 billion in new defense spending, increasing the total budget for the Department of Defense to more than $1 trillion. It is more than a 20% increase over U.S. military spending in Trump's last year of his first term and surpasses the already record spending under former President Joe Biden for a single year. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, it has $2.23 trillion in budgetary resources available in fiscal year 2025. It has about $782 billion in total obligations or funds it plans to spend in the fiscal year -- about 35% of its total resources. The bill proposes billions in new funding for an array of defense equipment and facilities and development and acquisition of missiles and nuclear weapon capabilities across its military's branches. New defense spending is directed toward border security, including $5 billion for border operations and deployment of military personnel. Funding will also go toward counter-narcotics operations. An additional $46.5 billion is proposed for expenses related to constructing and installing border barriers, access roads, cameras, sensors and other technology meant to detect immigrant crossings. In the bill, the Trump administration outlines its minimum goals for hiring additional U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents through 2029. In fiscal year 2025, it calls for a minimum of 2,500 new hires. Each year after through 2029 sets the minimum new hires at 1,875. If the funding is passed as proposed, the Department of Defense would dedicate new funding toward naval capabilities. This includes $4.6 billion for a second Virginia-class submarine -- a nuclear-powered attack submarine -- in fiscal year 2027. About $5.4 billion would go toward two more guided missile destroyer ships. Several investments are earmarked for unmanned vessels, including $3.3 billion to expand production on small and medium unmanned surface vessels. Another $1.3 billion would expand production of unmanned underwater vehicles. Air defense and space operations are also in line for new funding. The bill proposes $7.2 billion for the development, procurement and integration of military space-based sensors. These are used to scan Earth for strategic global missile warnings. It also seeks to accelerate the development of U.S. hypersonic defense systems with an additional $2.2 billion in funding. In 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin disclosed that Russia launched an experimental hypersonic missile at a Ukrainian aerospace plant. It was Russia's first use of a nuclear-capable weapon in the war. Trump aims to invest in the United States' presence in the Indo-Pacific with $1.1 billion in infrastructure within the area of its Indo-Pacific command and $1 billion for an offensive cyber operation.
