By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senate Republicans on Friday were trying to reach consensus over President Donald Trump’s sprawling tax-cut and spending bill, including proposed healthcare cuts that have worried some of their more populist-minded members.
Top Senate Republican John Thune has the difficult task of keeping his 53-member majority in line, as they use a parliamentary maneuver to bypass unified Democratic opposition to Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which would extend his 2017 tax cuts and boost spending on border security and the military.
Thune’s task was further complicated this week as the Senate parliamentarian, a nonpartisan referee, informed Republicans that more than $250 billion in healthcare cuts in the Republican bill did not qualify for inclusion under long-standing budget rules.
An earlier version of the bill passed by the House of Representatives last month was forecast to add about $3 trillion to the federal government’s $36.2 trillion debt.
Trump on Thursday expressed “hope” that the bill would pass before the July 4 Independence Day holiday. Lawmakers will face a far more serious deadline later this summer, when they need to raise the nation’s self-imposed debt ceiling or risk a devastating default.
Kevin Hassett, Trump’s top economic adviser, also told reporters at the White House that Trump remains “highly confident” that Congress will pass the bill by July 4. He said Trump talked about the legislation with Thune on Thursday at the White House. Trump is “fully engaged” in seeing the bill pass the finish line, he said.
The lengthy talks have laid bare divisions within Trump’s Republican Party and the difficulties of passing such massive legislation with thin margins of control. Three Republican “no” votes in either chamber would be enough to scuttle the bill.
Senate Republicans have been arguing for weeks over one provision in particular: a Medicaid cut that several senators feared could put rural hospitals in tough financial straits or even out of business.
Behind closed doors, Republicans were trying to figure out a way to possibly tweak their language to make the savings conform to Senate rules.
Democrats kept hammering away at a bill that they say cuts social safety net programs that also include food aid for the poor in order to pay for tax cuts that mainly benefit the wealthy.
Besides healthcare disagreements, talks continued with House Republican counterparts on SALT, a state and local tax cap on deductions imposed in Trump’s 2017 tax-cut law. It has angered lawmakers mainly in coastal states where home prices and property taxes are higher than most other parts of the country.
There were some signs of progress late on Thursday, however, as U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent asked Republicans to remove a controversial “retaliatory tax” proposal from the bill targeting foreign investors.
Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma told reporters that a retooled package could come together within the next 24 hours or so, saying, “We’ve all had our say, we’ve all fought hard for our provisions. Now we’re building a package.”
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Scott Malone and Diane Craft)
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