House Passes it's version of "One Big Beautiful Bill" 215-214 Now the Senate will hopefully improve it as Every Democrat Voted Against the Bill to the detriment of their voters and America
by Jordain Carney, Politico.com, May 22, 2025
Senate Republicans are vowing they will make changes to President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” after it passed the House early Thursday morning.
While the end product is likely to contain sweeping areas of overlap with the proposal negotiated by Speaker Mike Johnson, GOP senators made clear Thursday that the House bill can’t pass without major changes. Some of the member demands are contradictory, with some fiscal hawks demanding beefed-up spending reductions while others want softening of the House’s Medicaid language and to preserve more green-energy incentives.
“I’m hoping now we’ll actually start looking at reality,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). “I know everybody wants to go to Disney World, but we just can’t afford it.”
Johnson batted down the idea that he would fold under arm-twisting from Trump — much as his House counterparts did. “Listen, in the House, President Trump can threaten to primary [holdouts], and those guys want to keep their seats. I understand the pressure. Can’t pressure me that way.”
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Johnson said there are sufficient votes to block the bill if his party doesn’t bend in his direction on spending reductions, including setting up a bicameral process for going “line by line” to find a total of roughly $6.5 trillion in cuts over the coming decade.
One of the Republicans he believes is in his corner — Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — said Thursday that while he supports the party’s tax agenda, he cannot support the bill if it includes a debt ceiling hike. Republicans want to use the party-line bill to increase the debt ceiling until after the 2026 election without having to give concessions to Democrats.
“I think if you’re going to raise the debt ceiling $4 or $5 trillion, it indicates that the project afoot isn’t going to fix the deficit at all,” Paul said. “Once Republicans vote for this, Republicans are going to own the deficit.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune can lose three GOP senators and still get the party-line bill — which ties a tax overhaul together with new border, defense and energy spending — through the chamber. Most Republicans view Paul as a hard “no” and acknowledge Johnson might be, as well.
Thune wants to get the bill through the Senate by July 4, saying Thursday that holiday deadline is the “goal and the aspiration” but will depend on “what does it take to get to 51?”
He added that he spoke to Trump after the House bill passed just hours before. “The president,” he said, is “very happy” and “ready to go to work with the Senate.”
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Every Democrat Just Voted Against Tax Cuts, Pay Raises, and More . . .
The One, Big, Beautiful Bill has PASSED the House of Representatives — without a single Democrat voting to cut taxes, secure the border, or protect taxpayer-funded benefits for Americans who need them.
Here are only a few of the policies Democrats just unanimously opposed:
- The largest tax cut in history. This means $13,300 more for American families and wage increases up to $11,000 for workers with a double-digit percent decrease to their tax bills — plus NO TAX ON TIPS, NO TAX ON OVERTIME, a tax cut on seniors’ Social Security benefits, an expanded child tax credit, and a tax deduction on American-made vehicles. Americans making between $30,000 and $80,000 per year will see their taxes cut by 15% next year.
- Raising wages. American workers will see wage increases of up to $11,600; a typical family with two kids will see take-home pay rise by up to $13,300.
- Strong border security. This makes President Trump’s border crackdown permanent with the largest investment ever — funding AT LEAST one million illegal immigrant deportations per year, thousands of miles of new border wall and barriers, 18,000+ new immigration officials, and pay raises for our great ICE and Border Patrol agents.
- Protecting Medicaid for American citizens who need it. This ENDS taxpayer-funded benefits for at least 1.4 million illegal immigrants who are gaming the system and requiresable-bodied Americans to work if they receive benefits.
- Pay raises for troops. This increases special pay for servicemembers and gives them higher allowances for housing, healthcare, and family assistance.
- Ending taxpayer-funded chemical castration and mutilation. It reverses the Biden-era mandate that Medicaid cover so-called “gender transition” procedures.
- Modernizing air traffic control. This will allow President Trump to act where the Biden Administration failed by completely overhauling the systems that keep Americans flying safely and efficiently.
- Revolutionizing the nation’s defense. This funds President Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense shield, restocks America’s arsenal, expands our naval fleet, and improves military readiness to meet the needs of a changing world.
- Protecting family farmers. The bill prevents the greedy death tax from hitting two million family-owned farms that would otherwise see their exemptions cut in half and cuts taxes on farmers by over $10 billion.
- Unleashing American energy dominance. The bill increases onshore and offshore oil and gas leases, spurs job growth, makes energy more affordable, and makes America less dependent on foreign adversaries.
- Reversing runaway spending. This delivers $1.6 trillion in mandatory savings — the most in U.S. history and the largest deficit reduction in nearly 30 years.
