Key Senate Republicans strategized with President Trump on how to cut spending deeper than the House-passed budget bill and pressed him to make his proposed business tax cuts permanent.
Zoom in: The Congressional Budget Office projected that the bill will add $2.4 trillion to the deficit over 10 years.
Thune has been clear the Senate has some some serious policy differences on raising the cap to $40,000, as the House bill does.
shared his spending charts, which show how federal deficit have increased dramatically over the last twenty years — and will explode again.
Chairs of the Armed Services, Commerce and Banking committees presented on their parts of the bill during a closed door meeting with Senate Republicans Wednesday afternoon, sources familiar told Axios.
President Trump was pressured to make his proposed business tax cuts permanent by key Senate Republicans, who also planned ways to cut spending more deeply than the House-passed budget bill.
“Failure is not an option,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S), explaining why it matters. D. told reporters following the Wednesday meeting, which lasted an hour and a half.
The senator said, “We are going to cut some more money from what the House has done.”. Roger Marshall, a Republican from Kansas. informed Axios.
He asked, “Is it possible to reach $2 trillion? Should we make all of those business tax provisions permanent?”. “I believe those to be the main problems. “..”.
“We had a very, very robust and hopeful discussion with the president today,” Mike Crapo, the Republican Finance Chair, told reporters.
Inside: Vice President Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller joined the Senate Finance Committee members.
In his own economic projections, Hassett stated that if the bill is signed into law, the economy could expand at a rate of more than 4 percent per year.
Marshall remarked, “The President is really pleased with the 4.6 growth number.”. “We weren’t prepared for the amount of tariff money that is coming in. “.”.
Zoom in: According to Congressional Budget Office projections, the bill will increase the deficit by $2.04 trillion over a ten-year period.
“Everything that has been said about how this bill will increase our deficit is completely untrue,” Crapo stated.
In between: One of the main points of contention with the House was the SALT deduction cap.
Thune has stated unequivocally that the Senate and the House have different policies regarding raising the cap to $40,000.
However, he indicated some leniency on SALT as well. Thune stated, “We will collaborate with our house counterparts and the White House to try and get that because it’s about 51 and 218.”.
Sen. R-Okla’s Markwayne Mullin. often acts as a liaison between the Senate and the House, and he brought up the subject of SALT with colleagues during a House GOP meeting this morning.
He told Axios that “we don’t have a lot of wiggle room” for the Senate to make changes. “..”.
Sen is the enigma. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc. presented his spending charts, demonstrating how the federal deficit has grown significantly over the past 20 years and is poised to skyrocket once more.
Zoom out: With significant, unresolved issues in his conference and with the House, Thune is rapidly moving forward in an attempt to meet a deadline of July 4.
The Senate’s version of the One Big Beautiful Bill is now being released, starting with the simpler provisions as Republicans iron out their differences over spending cuts, taxes, and Medicaid.
The bill, which includes halting additional spending under the Inflation Reduction Act, was released on Wednesday along with the sections on the Armed Services, Environment, and Public Works.
During a closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans Wednesday afternoon, the chairs of the Banking, Commerce, and Armed Services committees gave presentations on their portions of the bill, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to Axios.
It is anticipated that other important committee chairs will provide additional briefings in the days and weeks ahead.
Watch this space as the Finance committee wrestles with the largest and most contentious aspects of the bill: Medicaid and taxes.
