U.S. Government & governance 3 July 2025-

No Kings Unveils a Big New Trump Protest, and the Stakes Couldn’t Be Higher
A movement leader tells Rolling Stone about the No Kings 2 demonstrations on Oct. 18, and how they can curb Trump’s overreach
No Kings 2 is being organized by a big tent of grassroots and advocacy organizations. One of the most prominent players is Indivisible, the activist group that sprang to life in the early days of the first Trump administration, and which now counts 2,500 distributed, local chapters nationwide.
Rolling Stone spoke to Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin last week, in advance of No Kings 2 unveiling today. The protest is planned for Oct. 18 — in the aftermath of an unpredictable showdown over government funding that could lead to a partial government shutdown by the end of the month.
Letters from an American June 30, 2025
Heather Cox Richardson
“This is the most deeply immoral piece of legislation I have ever voted on in my entire time in Congress,” said Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT).
“[W]e’re debating a bill that’s going to cut healthcare for 16 million people. It’s going to give a tax break to…massively wealthy people who don’t need any more money. There are going to be kids who go hungry because of this bill. This is the biggest reduction in…nutrition benefits for kids in the history of the country.” Murphy continued: “We’re obviously gonna continue to offer these amendments to try to make it better. So far not a single one of our amendments…has passed, but we’ll be here all day, probably all night, giving Republicans the chance over and over and over again to slim down the tax cuts for the corporations or to make life a little bit…less miserable for hungry kids or maybe don’t throw as many people off of healthcare. Maybe don’t close so many rural hospitals. It’s gonna be a long day and a long night.”
“This bill is a farce,” said Senator Angus King (I-ME). “Imagine a bunch of guys sitting around a table, saying, ‘I’ve got a great idea. Let’s give $32,000 worth of tax breaks to a millionaire and we’ll pay for it by taking health insurance away from lower-income and middle-income people. And to top it off, how about we cut food stamps, we cut SNAP, we cut food aid to people?’… I’ve been in this business of public policy now for 20 years, eight years as governor, 12 years in the United States Senate. I have never seen a bill this bad. I have never seen a bill that is this irresponsible, regressive, and downright cruel.”
17 July
What are rescissions – and why does Trump want Congress to push them through?
The president is pushing for cuts in spending that Congress needs to approve to take effect – but what exactly are they?
Congressional Republicans are pushing for passage of a rescissions package, legislation requested by Donald Trump that will claw back $9bn in funding intended for foreign aid programs and public broadcasting.
The bill, which is part of the president’s campaign to slash government spending, has passed the Senate by a narrow margin of 51 votes to 48.
What is a rescissions package?
Congress controls the power of the purse by approving a budget and then appropriating money. But under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, the president may request the rescission of previously authorized funds, and Congress has 45 days to approve it, otherwise the money must be spent.

Trump’s ‘Flood the Zone’ Strategy Also Involves a Lot of Mopping Up
The president’s push to do everything at once has overwhelmed Democrats, the courts, the media—and the White House.
Takeaways by Bloomberg AI
Donald Trump signed 205 executive orders from Jan. 20 to Sept. 20, as part of his far-right governing agenda outlined in Project 2025.
Trump’s administration is struggling to manage the torrent of actions they’ve unleashed, including tariffs, deportations, and lawsuits, with sometimes contradictory orders causing problems.
The government is trying to refill about 17,000 jobs that were eliminated in Elon Musk’s purge of federal agencies earlier this year, with departments such as the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Energy seeking to fill hundreds of positions.

18 October
‘No Kings’ is a Start, but the American Resistance Needs a Leader
Jeremy Kinsman
(Policy) The same unpredictability that made Trump’s leverage plausible in the dynamic with Israel — and makes less plausible his leverage with more symmetrical actors like China — remains the hallmark of Trump’s domestic presidential command as he unilaterally explodes norms on several fronts at once, exceeding presidential authority and precedent to destabilize U.S. society and dominate the news cycle.
Trump continues to demonize Democratic opponents and civil society protesters he depicts as “the enemy within,” deploying troops into “Democratic” cities to counter invented disorder he is actually seeking to incite — a time-worn technique of aspiring dictators, one that the long-gone drafters of the US Constitution intended to insulate the people against. Trump’s appointees to the Supreme Court have abandoned conservative originalism in deference to authoritarian appetite.
Trump’s strongman persona surfs on a wave of rising authoritarianism that has been cresting across the world for at least a decade as a counterforce to the “third wave” of democratization that followed the end of the Cold War.
… In Cairo, the inspiring young occupiers of Tahrir Square ended the 30-year regime of Hosni Mubarak but couldn’t agree on what to do next and were displaced by the better-organized Muslim Brotherhood regime. The chief of the Armed Forces, Abdel Fattah El Sisi, led a military coup in 2014, and has since imprisoned 65,000 Egyptian citizens in a blatant lockdown of civil rights. …As I write this, the “No Kings” demonstrations across America and abroad drew an estimated seven million protesters to more than 2,500 sites.
But the street rally also needs inspiring democratic leadership able to present a positive alternative to Trumpism. An interesting example is the unlikely favourite to be elected November 4 as New York City’s next mayor, 33-year-old democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, whom Trump labels a “communist.” Mamdani, the son of Oscar-nominated director Mira Nair (Mississippi Masala, Salaam Bombay!), fuses charisma with common sense commitment to kitchen-table issues of affordability, and need of efficient basic public services.he Sharm el Sheikh summit, President Trump lauded his Egyptian co-chairman autocrat as “tough on crime,” just his kind of leader. …

17 October
Tomorrow and forever: No Kings in America
Reform the Insurrection Act
Robert Reich
With No Kings rallies occurring across America tomorrow, and the Trump administration’s unhinged reaction to them on full display, it’s never been more important for Congress to reform the Insurrection Act. Please contact Congress and demand action immediately.
Donald Trump — the man who incited a violent insurrection against the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and has pardoned those who attacked our democracy — is now calling peaceful protesters “insurrectionists” and threatening to use military force against them.

9 October
This is who’s next on Trump’s list. It’s horrifying
(Raw Story) … Now they’re kicking in doors, shooting pepper-gas balls into the open windows of cars driven by reporters, smashing windows and furniture, and concealing their faces and identities like the Klan did in days of old. In Chicago, they’ve shot two unarmed people, killing one. And there wasn’t a warrant signed by a judge to be seen anywhere.
People ask, “Are we there, yet? Has America gone fascist? Are we now in a militarized dictatorship?”
Last week’s illegal, unconstitutional military assault on an apartment building in Chicago argues “Yes.” And if it doesn’t stimulate a similar level of public outrage as the Jimmy Kimmel suspension did, we’re all screwed.
And by “all” I mean you, too. None of us are safe if all of us aren’t safe. We have to stand up and speak out now.
Trump, Vance, Hegseth, and Noem carefully selected a low-income apartment building filled with Black and Hispanic people, correctly believing that the American mainstream media wouldn’t give it the coverage they would if ICE and our military had instead kicked in the doors of a building full of middle-class white people.
… ICE isn’t bothering to get the kinds of warrants required by the Fourth Amendment, instead they’re using “administrative warrants” signed by ICE officials; these are just window-dressing paperwork and are not legal warrants.

Letters from an American October 7, 2025
Heather Cox Richardson examines the power wielded by unelected officials in the Trump administration, citing the power of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), (headed by Russ Vought, formerly of Project 2025).
“If Trump were not going to use the power of the government for the good of the American people, Republicans in Congress could have picked up the power that he let fall. But they have chosen not to exercise their Constitutional duties, instead going along with what White House officials want. With their abdication, power appears to have flowed to unelected officials, first to billionaire Elon Musk and now to OMB director Russell Vought, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.”

30 September – 1 October
Veterans react to Hegseth’s ‘insulting’ address to generals and admirals
Defense secretary’s speech touching on physical fitness and doctrine of lethality was seen as ‘egotistical’ and ‘dangerous’
Hegseth wants to return the military to 1990 — a dark time in its history
The early 1990s saw the U.S. Navy rocked by the Tailhook sexual assault scandal, exposing a dark underside of military culture. … Among the changes that Hegseth announced was that the Pentagon will hold “a full review” of how words such as “bullying,” “hazing” and “toxic leadership” are used, saying those terms have been “weaponized” to undercut military leaders. But back in the 1990s, they were mild in describing what was actually going on.
The Commander in Chief Is Not Okay
Trump put on a disturbing show for America’s generals and admirals.
By Tom Nichols
(The Atlantic) … As comical as many of Trump’s comments were, the president’s nakedly partisan appeal to U.S. military officers was a violation of every standard of American civil-military relations, and exactly what George Washington feared could happen with an unscrupulous commander in chief. The most ominous part of his speech came when he told the military officers that they would be part of the solution to domestic threats, fighting the “enemy from within.” He added, almost as a kind of trollish afterthought, that he’d told Hegseth, “We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military—National Guard, but military—because we’re going into Chicago very soon. That’s a big city with an incompetent governor. Stupid governor.”
… In 1973, an Air Force nuclear-missile officer named Harold Hering asked a simple question during a training session: “How can I know that an order I receive to launch my missiles came from a sane president?” The question cost him his career. Military members are trained to execute orders, not question them. But today, both the man who can order the use of nuclear arms and the man who would likely verify such an order gave disgraceful and unnerving performances in Quantico. How many officers left the room asking themselves Major Hering’s question?
Generals silent as Hegseth ends ‘warrior ethos’ rally speech: ‘Out with the Milleys’ and ‘in with the Pattons’
More than 800 of America’s top military leaders sat silent and showed no reaction as ex-Fox News host turned Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth issued a series of new directives that will make it harder for women to serve in combat and easier for personnel to engage in hazing and bullying without repercussions…
“Out with the Chiarelli, the McKenzies and the Milleys and in with the Stockdales the Schwartzkopfs and the Pattons,” Hegseth said, denigrating former Army Vice Chief of Staff General Peter Chiarelli, ex-U.S. Central Command commander and Marine Corps General Kenneth McKenzie Jr, and ex-Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman and Army General Mark Milley, each of whom has been critical of Trump or his administration.
Hegseth, an Iraq war veteran who attained the rank of major in the Army National Guard but became a critic of the Pentagon’s efforts to open up military service to women, racial minorities and LGBT+ persons, said the War Department must “restore a ruthless, dispassionate and common sense application of standards” that are “uniform, gender neutral and high.” …
29 September
Why Does Hegseth Want More Than 800 Admirals and Generals in the Same Room?
Few things are important enough to justify the security risk of putting all of these people in the same place.
By Tom Nichols
(The Atlantic) Secretary of Defense/War/Lethality Pete Hegseth…recently decided that some 800 generals and admirals needed to come, in person, from every corner of the planet to a Marine base at Quantico, Virginia, reportedly to listen to their boss, a former TV host, lecture them on the “warrior ethos”—and, for some reason, personal grooming. The Tuesday meeting will feature not only Hegseth but also a last-minute addition: the commander in chief himself.
Hegseth has had a lot of bad ideas, but this one is disruptive and even somewhat dangerous. All of these men and women have real jobs they should be doing. Even if Hegseth is calling this meeting to discuss serious issues of national defense—and so far, the Pentagon has given no such indications—few things are important enough to justify the security risk of putting the entire top U.S. military command, the secretary of defense, and the president all in the same room.

26 September
Gabbard Ends Intelligence Report on Future Threats to U.S.
(NYT) The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, led by Tulsi Gabbard, is eliminating the group that compiles a public document that predicts what challenges the country — and the world — will face. Some issues in the document, which is published every four years, had become politically inconvenient, former officials said.

19 September
Michael Bloomberg: In Dark Times, Americans Need Leadership That Unites
Our response to Charlie Kirk’s assassination must be better.
… While talk of vengeance and retribution fills the air, the fact is: The overwhelming majority of Americans of all political persuasions are horrified by the shooting, and the shooter’s hatred should not be projected onto others as a pretext for repressing political opposition and free speech. Attempting to do so would only make intolerance for dissent — and the violence it breeds — worse. Many on the left are now learning this the hard way, but many on the right have long known it and should speak up more forcefully.
The partisanship fueling such animosity is a cancer that is consuming and weakening the body politic. The good news? There’s a simple cure: leadership.
Asking all Americans to rise above hostile and narrow-minded thinking — and to seek, as Abraham Lincoln once said, “the better angels of our nature” — is what real leadership is all about. In times of crisis, strong leaders ease tensions. They don’t inflame them. They seek solutions, not scapegoats. They pull us together, rather than pushing us apart. And they remind us of the values that transcend party.
… We need leaders in both parties, and at every level of government, to provide stronger leadership in these times. It is not enough for governors, mayors, members of Congress and state legislators to issue the usual statements denouncing violence.
We need them, and civic leaders of all kinds, to stand together physically in displays of bipartisan unity, as more than 20 members of Congress did this week on the steps of the Capitol.

14 September
Inside Stephen Miller’s Reign of Terror
Everything you loathe or love about Donald Trump’s America, you hate or cherish about Miller’s republic of fear
By Asawin Suebsaeng, Nikki McCann Ramirez, Andrew Perez
(Rolling Stone) … Under Miller’s guiding hand, the  president and his lieutenants …  [have]  quickly turned much of federal law enforcement into the masked, nameless, unaccountable secret police, working at the whims of the president and his staff. The president can deploy armed National Guard troops, and even U.S. Marines, to the streets of an American city any time he wants — and deem it enemy territory. The administration has made censoring media organizations, comedians, and aging rock stars a policy priority, in an anti-free-speech crusade waged from the West Wing to the Federal Communications Commission.
… As the president’s policy architect and enforcer, [Miller] is obsessed, according to three Trump advisers, with deploying the might of the government to stamp out what he deems “anti-white hatred” and “anti-white racism” and “anti-white discrimination” — no matter the cost. … He’s yearned to erect a vast hyper-militarized network of what he’s dubbed “camps” for detention and mass deportation — a network he hopes will change the American political and physical landscape forever.
… Nowadays, according to various sources working in and close to the Trump West Wing, the president’s lieutenant is technically a deputy White House chief of staff, but he far outpaces the actual White House chief of staff — Trump’s former 2024 campaign co-chief Susie Wiles — as Trump’s primary chief of administration policy.
Miller touches virtually every policy and executive action (especially as it relates to domestic initiatives), effectively all documents, Trump directives, constitutionally dubious orders, and memos. The architecture of Trump’s military crackdowns (in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and coming to a Democratic-dominant city near you) is in part a product of Miller’s vision for dominating liberal strongholds he despises.
The Trump administration’s sweeping clampdown on diversity programs, higher education, and free speech Trump does not care for is a direct expression of Miller’s ethos, bringing to life a long-held ambition of federalizing the conservative “culture war” in ways once thought uncouth.
15 August
Stephen Miller’s revenge? Duke is now in the crosshairs
(The Hill) Nationwide, blanket research compensation cutbacks on all universities have already cost Duke 600 jobs, mostly through buyouts. Three thousand more positions may be at risk.
…  Some on campus see in all this the malign hand of perhaps the most powerful Duke alum in the country, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, class of 2007. Miller, a conservative student firebrand on campus, may be out to settle some scores.
28 February
Stephen Miller: Understanding the man who became ‘Trump’s brain’ through his [Duke University] Chronicle opinion column

2 September
The Anti-Trump Strategy That’s Actually Working
Lawsuits, lawsuits, and more lawsuits
By Michael Scherer
(The Atlantic) The first seven months of Trump’s Oval Office do-over have been, with occasional exception, a tale of ruthless domination. The Democratic opposition is feeble and fumbling, the federal bureaucracy traumatized and neutered. Corporate leaders come bearing gifts, the Republican Party has been scrubbed of dissent, and the street protests are diminished in size. Even the news media, a major check on Trump’s power in his first term, have faded from their 2017 ferocity, hobbled by budget cuts, diminished ratings, and owners wary of crossing the president.
One exception has stood out: A legal resistance led by a patchwork coalition of lawyers, public-interest groups, Democratic state attorneys general, and unions has frustrated Trump’s ambitions. Hundreds of attorneys and plaintiffs have stood up to him, feeding a steady assembly line of setbacks and judicial reprimands for a president who has systematically sought to break down limits on his own power. Of the 384 cases filed through August 28 against the Trump administration, 130 have led to orders blocking at least part of the president’s efforts, and 148 cases await a ruling, according to a review by Just Security. Dozens of those rulings are the final word, with no appeal by the government, and others have been stayed on appeal, including by the Supreme Court.

Letters from an American August 11, 2025
Heather Cox Richardson
President Donald J. Trump’s big announcement today at his press conference—to which he showed up late—was that he is assuming control over the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department and deploying more than 100 agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and about 40 from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, along with officers from the Secret Service and the U.S. Marshals Service and members of the District of Columbia National Guard, “to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor, and worse.” He reiterated that officers would clear homeless encampments from the city.
…legal analyst Asha Rangappa notes that FBI agents are not trained to patrol the streets, and that every one of them assigned to do that is not investigating foreign spies, foreign and domestic terrorists, or crimes like fraud, murder, corruption, and human trafficking.
… The administration’s seizure of power is anything but imaginary. As Stengel noted, “Throughout history, autocrats use a false pretext to impose government control over local law enforcement as a prelude to a more national takeover. That’s far more dangerous than the situation he says he is fixing.” While Trump is mobilizing the National Guard under a pretext now, he memorably refused to mobilize it on January 6, 2021, to protect the lawmakers under siege in the U.S. Capitol as his supporters tried to stop the counting of the electoral votes that would make Democrat Joe Biden president.
Some clues to what the administration is attempting showed up today in a court in California, where Governor Gavin Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta are suing the Department of Justice, saying it broke the law by deploying about 4,000 troops from the National Guard and 700 U.S. Marines to Los Angeles in June without authorization. A federal law known as the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits federal troops from acting as law enforcement officers.
… The administration is also consolidating power over the economy. Greg Ip of the Wall Street Journal noted today that the U.S. is marching toward a form of state capitalism in which Trump looks much like the Chinese Communist Party, exercising political control not just over government agencies but over companies themselves. … Ip also notes that state capitalism is a means of political control, using the power of the state to crush political challenges. “In Trump’s first term, CEOs routinely spoke out when they disagreed with his policies such as on immigration and trade,” Ip writes. “Now, they shower him with donations and praise, or are mostly silent.” Ip pointed out that Trump is deploying financial power and regulatory power to cow media companies, banks, law firms, and government agencies he thinks are not sufficiently supportive.
Trump’s second presidency has been following the plan outlined in Project 2025 closely, even though Trump denied any association with Project 2025 when he ran for office. Russell Vought, now director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote the section of the plan that called for an extraordinarily strong executive in order to put in place Christian nationalism. Increasingly, it looks like members of his administration are using Trump in order to create a system that will respond to whoever is in charge, making it possible for today’s leaders to retain control over the country even without Trump there to mobilize MAGA voters.

18 July
Congress approves Trump’s $9 billion cut to public broadcasting and foreign aid
(AP) — The House gave final approval to President Donald Trump’s request to claw back about $9 billion for public broadcasting and foreign aid early Friday as Republicans intensified their efforts to target institutions and programs they view as bloated or out of step with their agenda.
The vote marked the first time in decades that a president has successfully submitted such a rescissions request to Congress, and the White House suggested it won’t be the last. Some Republicans were uncomfortable with the cuts, yet supported them anyway, wary of crossing Trump or upsetting his agenda.

4 July
Trump’s Rejection of America’s Founding Principles
Steve Pincus
(Project Syndicate) As the United States marks its 249th birthday on July 4, Americans must reckon with the fact that President Donald Trump’s administration has largely abandoned the principles underpinning the Declaration of Independence. Without free trade, free immigration, and internationalism, America resembles what its founders rebelled against. …
No one truly committed to the original meaning of America’s constitutional document can abandon the principles of free trade, free immigration, or internationalism, as framed by Franklin and Jefferson, embraced by Adams and Lincoln, and presumably celebrated each year on the Fourth of July. But recent developments suggest that today’s political leaders are doing just that. The Trump administration’s flurry of tariffs and trade barriers, terrorization and deportation of immigrants, and increasing isolationism are more reminiscent of George III’s policies than of those defended by America’s founders. Over the past 249 years, the US was arguably at its greatest when it fervently pursued its founding mission to guarantee the free flow of people and goods, and to build international alliances opposed to tyrannical and autocratic governments. As the country approaches its semiquincentennial, one fears that it is also approaching its nadir.

1-3 July
This is Fascism
Trump’s Big Ugly Bill is fascist — not only in what it does and authorizes, but in how it got enacted
Robert Reich
Trump’s 940-page Big Ugly Bill was passed today by the House and is now on the way to the White House for Trump’s signature.
It is a disgrace. It takes more than $1 trillion out of Medicaid — leaving about 12 million Americans without insurance by 2034 — and slashes Food Stamps, to give a giant tax cut to wealthy Americans.
It establishes an anti-immigrant police state in America, replete with a standing army of ICE agents and a gulag of detention facilities that transform ICE into the most heavily funded law enforcement agency in the government.
It will increase the already-bloated deficit by $3.4 trillion.
It’s also disgraceful because of how it came to be.
Trump was elected with only a plurality of American voters, not a majority. He eked out his win by a margin of only 1.5 percent.
His Big Ugly Bill squeaked by in the Senate by one vote, supplied by JD Vance, and by just two votes in the House. No Democrat in either chamber voted for it.
Polls show most Americans oppose it.
It was passed nevertheless — within an artificial deadline set by Trump — because of Trump’s total grip on the Republican Party.

The House gives final approval to Trump’s big tax bill and sends it to him to sign
(AP) The tight roll call, 218-214, came at a potentially high political cost, with two Republicans joining all Democrats opposed. GOP leaders worked overnight and the president himself leaned on a handful of skeptics to drop their opposition and send the bill to him to sign into law. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York delayed voting for more than more than eight hours by seizing control of the floor with a record-breaking speech against the bill.

Fractured G.O.P. Fights Over Trump’s Bill as His Deadline Looms
(NYT) Divisions within President Trump’s own party threatened on Wednesday to derail the major legislation to fulfill his domestic agenda. The White House and Speaker Mike Johnson are working to unite House Republicans behind the bill to slash taxes and the federal safety net, but objections from several conservatives suggest that Mr. Johnson might lack the support to pass it before Mr. Trump’s Friday deadline. Fiscal hard-liners say the bill would add too much to the national debt, while more moderate Republicans fear its cuts go too far. Read more ›
Johnson faces G.O.P. resistance to a quick vote on Trump’s signature bill.
Mr. Johnson can only afford a small number of defections on President Trump’s signature domestic policy bill
House left in limbo as megabill talks continue
Leaders blame travel delays, but vote-whipping has heated up.
(Politico) Republican holdouts on the Senate-passed version of the party’s “big, beautiful bill” are huddling with House GOP leaders, who are holding open a vote to move the legislation forward as they negotiate.
The procedural vote remained stuck more than 90 minutes after it was first called. Seven Republicans have yet to vote, and several of them are gathered in a room off the House floor where Speaker Mike Johnson and other top leaders have been shuffling in and out.
The House rushes to pass Trump’s big bill
(AP) Republican leaders in the House are sprinting toward a Wednesday vote on President Donald Trump’s tax and spending cuts package, determined to seize momentum from a hard-fought vote in the Senate while essentially daring members to defy their party’s leader and vote against it.
It’s a risky gambit designed to meet Trump’s demand for a July 4 finish.
House members scramble to return to DC for megabill vote
Storms along the east coast are forcing some lawmakers to drive hours back to DC
Some House members are going to great lengths to make it back to to Washington for a vote on the Republican megabill after severe weather canceled dozens of flights.
US Senate passes Trump’s sweeping tax-cut and spending bill, setting up House battle
Measure passes 51-50 after days of debate, all-night session
Democrats criticize bill for Medicaid cuts
Vice President JD Vance cast tiebreaking vote
Path to House passage also tricky
(Reuters) U.S. Senate Republicans passed President Donald Trump’s massive tax-cut and spending bill on Tuesday by the narrowest of margins, advancing a package that would slash taxes, reduce social safety net programs and boost military and immigration enforcement spending while adding $3.3 trillion to the national debt.
The legislation now heads to the House of Representatives for possible final approval, though a handful of Republicans there have already voiced opposition to some of the Senate provisions.
Senate Republicans Overcome 3 Holdouts to Send Signature Policy Bill to House
The Senate passed President Trump’s marquee bill to slash taxes and social safety net programs after more than 24 hours of debate and negotiations. It must now go to the House for final approval.
(NYT) The Senate passed President Trump’s signature tax and domestic policy bill on Tuesday, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tiebreaking vote after three Republicans broke ranks and joined Democrats in opposition. If approved in the House, where deep cuts to Medicaid and the $3.3 trillion it would add to the national debt have unnerved some Republicans, the legislation could deal staggering financial losses to low-income Americans while reserving its greatest benefits for the rich.
Republican Bill Puts Nation on New, More Perilous Fiscal Path
Among the most expensive pieces of legislation in years, the Republican legislation could reshape the country’s finances for a generation.