Both sides of the aisle trade barbs, praise of ‘big, beautiful bill’ as final Senate vote looms

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WLNE) — This morning, the senate is gearing up for its final debate on President Trump‘s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” as they race to pass the spending bill by the president’s July 4 deadline.

The bill includes nearly $4 trillion in tax cuts and would eliminate taxes on tips and overtime pay, spend $150 billion on border security and raise the debt ceiling by trillions of dollars while Medicaid and other social safety net programs are being reduced.

“Don’t forget to tell the folks back home, yeah, I voted to say a trillion dollars is nothing, but we still need to kick people off their health care. That’s just too expensive. We still need to close those hospitals. We have to cut costs, and we still have to kick people off snap, because the debt is out of control,” said Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington.

Senate Republicans who can’t afford to lose more than three votes to pass the bill are fighting each other over the bill’s merits.

“It’s a big, beautiful bill if you believe in cutting people’s taxes, securing the border, having a strong military and controlling government spending,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

“So we’re adding two trillion this year but we, they’re anticipating, the authors of the bill anticipating adding more than two trillion next year. That doesn’t sound at all conservative to me, and that’s why I’m a no,” said Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky.

After Senator Paul of and Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina said that they would oppose the measure, President Trump took to social media on Sunday and threatened Republican senators not to “Go too crazy!” suggesting that they still need to be reelected.

And just hours later, Tillis announced he won’t be running for re-election.

Both of Rhode Island’s senators spoke on the senate floor overnight, with Senator Jack Reed calling the Trump/GOP budget bill a quote “big ugly betrayal of working families.”

“And here’s the simple truth, this bill takes health insurance and food assistance away from millions of Americans and gives trumps friends giant tax cuts,” said Reed.