US Senate Republicans on Tuesday passed US President Donald Trump’s massive tax-cut and spending bill 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 US$3.3 trillion to the national debt.
Republican leaders in the House of Representatives were yesterday sprinting toward a vote on the package, determined to seize momentum from the Senate win, while essentially daring members to defy their party’s leader and vote against it.
Trump wants to sign it into law by US Independence Day on Friday, a deadline US House Speaker Mike Johnson said he aimed to meet.
Photo: Reuters
The measure would extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, give new tax breaks for income from tips and overtime pay, and increase spending on the military and immigration enforcement. It would also cut about US$930 billion of spending on the Medicaid health program and food aid for low-income Americans, and repeal many of former US president Joe Biden’s green-energy incentives.
The legislation, which has exposed Republican divides over the nation’s fast-growing US$36.2 trillion debt, would raise the federal government’s self-imposed debt ceiling by US$5 trillion. Congress must raise the cap in the coming months or risk a devastating default.
The Senate passed the measure in a 51-50 vote with US Vice President J.D. Vance breaking a tie after three Republican senators — Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky — joined all 47 Democrats in voting against the bill.
The vote followed an all-night debate in which Republicans grappled with the bill’s price tag and its impact on the US healthcare system.
Much of the late horse-trading was aimed at winning over Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who had signaled she would vote against the bill without significant alterations.
The final Senate bill included two provisions that helped secure her vote: one that sends more food-aid funding to Alaska and several other states, and another providing US$50 billion to help rural hospitals cope with the sweeping cuts to Medicaid.
The vote in the House, where Republicans hold a 220-212 majority, is likely to be close.
A White House official told reporters that Trump would be “deeply involved” in pushing House Republicans to approve the bill.
Additional reporting by AP
VENEZUELAN ACTION: Marco Rubio said that previous US interdiction efforts have not stemmed the flow of illicit drugs into the US and that ‘blowing them up’ would US President Donald Trump on Wednesday justified a lethal military strike that his administration said was carried out a day earlier against a Venezuelan gang as a necessary effort by the US to send a message to Latin American cartels. Asked why the military did not instead interdict the vessel and capture those on board, Trump said that the operation would cause drug smugglers to think twice about trying to move drugs into the US. “There was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people and everybody fully understands that,” Trump said while hosting Polish President
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
A French couple kept Louise, a playful black panther, in an apartment in northern France, triggering panic when she was spotted roaming nearby rooftops. The pair were were handed suspended jail sentences on Thursday for illegally keeping a wild animal, despite protesting that they saw Louise as their baby. The ruling follows a September 2019 incident when the months-old feline was seen roaming a rooftop in Armentieres after slipping out of the couple’s window. Authorities captured the panther by sedating her with anesthetic darts after she entered a home. No injuries were reported during the animal’s time on the loose. The court in the
Another tanker carrying liquefied natural gas from Russia’s sanctioned Arctic LNG (liquefied natural gas) 2 project has docked in a Chinese port, ship-tracking data showed, days after Russian President Vladimir Putin met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing. The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) tracking data indicated the Russian Voskhod LNG tanker was anchored at an LNG terminal in the port of Tieshan in Guangxi, China. The Russian flagged tanker, with a cargo of 150,000 cubic meters of LNG, was loaded up at the Arctic LNG 2 facility in Gydan in northern Siberia on July 19, LSEG data showed.
RSS