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Republican lawmakers were on Sunday struggling to find the votes to pass Donald Trump’s landmark tax and spending bill after only barely gathering enough support to begin the debate on the legislation in the Senate.
Republican senators late on Saturday eked out the numbers to start debating what Trump has dubbed the “big, beautiful bill” after an afternoon of fraught negotiations. The vote of 51-49 began a critical procedural step towards passing the new measure.
But congressional wrangling continued on Sunday, with Democrats demanding that the 940-page bill be read out in full on the Senate floor. The reading is expected to end on Sunday afternoon. Votes are set to follow, but have not yet been scheduled.
Passing the bill — which extends sweeping tax cuts introduced during Trump’s first term — has been a priority for the president since his return to office. He has piled pressure on senators to get the legislation over the line before the July 4 holiday.
In order to fund the tax cut extensions and increase spending on the military and border security, the bill slashes funds for healthcare and social welfare programmes. It also scraps taxes on tips and overtime.
“Tonight we saw a GREAT VICTORY in the Senate,” Trump said in a post on his platform Truth Social early on Sunday morning. “VERY PROUD OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY TONIGHT.”
Independent forecasters have warned that the bill will add to the country’s already swollen debt levels, pushing them beyond world war two highs.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office on Sunday said that its current version will add more than $3.2tn to US national debt over 10 years.
The White House, which has insisted the legislation will ultimately shrink the debt, said: “Democrats and the media love to tout the CBO’s historically incorrect scoring”.
Chuck Schumer, Democratic Senate minority leader, told senators late on Saturday that Republicans were “scrambling to pass a radical bill, released to the public in the dead of night, praying the American people don’t realise what’s in it”.
The cost of the bill and its planned cuts to Medicaid health services for the poor have worried even some Republicans.
Thom Tillis, the Republican senator from North Carolina, joined Democrats in voting against opening debate on the bill, warning the legislation “would result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for North Carolina, including our hospitals and rural communities”.
Trump’s retaliation was swift, threatening Tillis with a primary challenge.
“I will be meeting with [challengers] over the coming weeks, looking for someone who will properly represent the Great People of North Carolina and, so importantly, the United States of America”, he said on Truth Social.
Tillis on Sunday announced he would not seek re-election.
His retirement throws into uncertainty what is set to be among the most competitive seats in the 2026 midterm elections. Wiley Nickel, a former Democratic House representative, has already launched his Senate bid for North Carolina, a critical swing state.
Billionaire Elon Musk also used the moment to resume his attacks on the bill for the first time since falling out with Trump over the issue.
“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!” Musk said in a post on X on Saturday afternoon.
“Utterly insane and destructive,” Musk added. “It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”
If the measure is passed, the US House of Representatives, which passed its own version of the legislation last month, must then approve the amendments made in the Senate bill before it can be sent to the president’s desk for his signature.
