Republicans push through Trump’s 'big beautiful' tax breaks as JD Vance breaks tie

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., rushes from the chamber to his office as he struggles with Republicans opposed to President Donald Trump's signature bill of big tax breaks and spending cuts, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Republicans have pushed through Donald Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill on the narrowest of votes, despite opposition from Democrats and their own ranks after a turbulent overnight session.

Vice president JD Vance broke a 50-50 tie to push the bill over the top. The three Republicans opposing the bill were Thom Tillis, Susan Collins and Rand Paul.

The outcome capped an unusually tense weekend of work at the Capitol as the president’s signature legislative priority teetered on the edge of approval or collapse.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., emerges from a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate majority leader John Thune spent the night searching for last-minute agreements between those in his party worried that the bill’s reductions to Medicaid would leave millions without care, and his most conservative flank, which wanted steeper cuts to hold down deficits ballooning with the tax cuts.

It was a pivotal moment for the Republicans as the 940-page One Big Beautiful Bill Act, as it is formally titled, consumed Congress as its shared priority with the president.

House speaker Mike Johnson has signalled more potential problems ahead, warning that the Senate package could run into trouble when it is sent back to the House for a final round of voting, as sceptical legislators are being called back to Washington ahead of Mr Trump’s July 4 deadline.

President Donald Trump speaks with the media as he arrives at "Alligator Alcatraz," a new migrant detention facility at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The president acknowledged it is “very complicated stuff”, as he left the White House On Tuesday.

“We’re going to have to see the final version,” he said. “I don’t want to go too crazy with cuts. I don’t like cuts.” What started as a routine but laborious day of amendment voting spiralled into an almost round-the-clock marathon as Republican leaders were buying time to shore up support. It was among the longest sessions processing the most amendments in modern times.

Vice president JD Vance broke a 50-50 tie to push the bill over the top. File Picture: AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

The droning roll calls in the chamber belied the frenzied action to steady the bill. Grim-faced scenes played out on and off the Senate floor, and tempers flared.

The bill includes $4.5tn in tax cuts, according to the latest analysis, making permanent Mr Trump’s 2017 rates, which would expire at the end of the year if Congress fails to act, while adding the new ones he campaigned on, including no taxes on tips.

The package would roll back billions of dollars in green energy tax credits, which Democrats warn will wipe out wind and solar investments nationwide.

It would impose $1.2tn in cuts, largely to Medicaid and food stamps, by imposing work requirements on able-bodied people, including some parents and older Americans, making sign-up eligibility more stringent and changing federal reimbursements to states.

Additionally, the bill would provide a $350bn infusion for border and national security, including for deportations, some of it paid for with new fees charged to immigrants.