Trump's budget bill in jeopardy, conservative Senators want more cuts

Fiscal conservatives in the Senate believe there are enough members who oppose the projected deficit increases in President Trump's so-called Big Beautiful Tax and Budget Bill to stop its progress in Congress

Here's a look at where things stand. As it's currently written, the bill is expected to add $3.8 trillion to the national debt over the next decade

Some Republicans consider that to be unacceptable. I think we have enough to stop the process until the president gets serious about spending reduction and reducing the deficit

We are mortgaging our children's future. It's wrong. It's immoral. It has to stop

Johnson says federal spending should go back to pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, the government spent $4.4 trillion

In 2024, it increased to $6.8 trillion. Even when adjusting for inflation, that's still an increase of more than a trillion dollars

More than 70 percent of the money goes towards programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid in addition to interest payments on the national debt

Another 13 percent is for the national defense, leaving only a combined 14 percent on other programs that are considered discretionary

Republicans are getting a bulk of their savings in this bill through work requirements for both Medicaid and SNAP

Adults without disabilities and without dependents will have to work 80 hours per month to qualify

The Medicaid and SNAP adjustments are estimated to save approximately trillion I think the cuts currently in the bill are wimpy and anemic but I still would support the bill even with wimpy and anemic cuts if they weren going to explode the debt The

problem is the math doesn't add up. They're going to explode the debt by the House says four trillion

The Senate's actually been talking about exploding the debt five trillion. President Trump had a few

priorities that didn't make it through the House. For instance, he wanted to end the carried interest

loophole, which allows investment fund managers to link some of their compensation to capital gains

so it gets taxed at a lower rate. Trump also wanted to create a new tax bracket for those

who make $2.5 million a year or more. He didn't get either one of those things

But I want the Senate and the senators to change, you know, to make the changes they want

and we'll go back to the House and we'll see if we can get them. In some cases, those changes

maybe are something I'd agree with, to be honest. I think they're going to have changes. Some will be

minor and some will be, you know, fairly significant. House Speaker Mike Johnson asked the Senate to keep the changes to a minimum

The bill passed the House by a single vote. Further cuts could alienate moderates

Dialing back the spending reductions could be a turnoff for fiscal hawks. I encourage them to remember that we have a very delicate equilibrium that we've reached on here

A lot of work went into this to find exactly the right balance. Congressional leadership hopes to have the bill to President Trump's desk by the 4th of July

They believe that timetable is still doable. I'm Ray Bogan for Straight Arrow News

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