From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.
Read more
Elon Musk has slammed the Senate version of President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” as support for the motion to proceed with the legislation in the upper chamber comes down to the wire.
“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!” Musk wrote on X on Saturday afternoon. “Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”
“This bill raises the debt ceiling by $5 TRILLION, the biggest increase in history, putting America in the fast lane to debt slavery!” he added.
Republicans are attempting to garner sufficient support on Saturday to pass a motion to proceed with the legislation. Senate Republicans dropped the final text of the sprawling 940-page bill late on Friday evening.
A vote to open debate on the legislation was expected around 4 p.m., but there was still no sign of one being called by Saturday evening as Republicans squabbled over the final text. The vote is likely to stretch across the weekend.
open image in gallery
Elon Musk lashed out at Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy legislation on Saturday (REUTERS)
If the bill does pass the Senate, it will return to the House of Representatives, which passed it last month. But plenty of House Republicans have objected to the Senate’s changes, teeing up yet another legislative battle over Trump’s massive bill.
Trump lobbied senators on Saturday while playing golf with Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
Trump has said he wants the Senate to pass the legislation — which would include sweeping spending cuts to pay for the tax cuts he signed into law in 2017, as well as increased spending for the military, oil exploration, and immigration enforcement — by the Fourth of July.
Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Democrats would object to the bill moving forward without the text being read on the Senate floor.
“We will be here all night if that’s what it takes to read it,” he said Saturday.
Reading the nearly 1,000-page bill on the floor is estimated to take 15 hours.
Republicans, who have 53 seats in the Senate, plan to pass the bill using the process of budget reconciliation. That would allow them to sidestep a filibuster from Democrats as long as the legislation relates to the budget. For the past week, the Senate parliamentarian’s office has issued advisories about which parts do not comply with the rules of reconciliation.
Biggest cuts to Medicaid in history
The biggest sticking point was major changes to Medicaid, with Republicans proposing the steepest cuts to the federal healthcare program in history.
The legislation would add work requirements for certain Medicaid recipients and limit how much money states can tax health care providers like hospitals and nursing homes to raise money for Medicaid.
But the American Hospital Association said this would devastate rural hospitals that rely on Medicaid dollars. The parliamentarian removed the provider tax provision, but the new version of the bill simply delays when the cap goes into effect.
Hospitals in Speaker Mike Johnson’s home state of Louisiana were compelled to write to him Saturday to warn that the Medicaid cuts “would be historic in their devastation.”
open image in gallery
The biggest sticking point was major changes to Medicaid, with Republicans proposing the steepest cuts to the federal healthcare program in history. (Middle East Images/AFP via Getty)
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, also warned that new Congressional Budget Office analysis of the bill would cut funding for Medicaid by $930 billion. Wyden accused Republican senators of pushing a “rushed and reckless” process.
“While Republican senators are securing baubles and trinkets for their political donors, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has confirmed that the Senate bill will cut $930 billion from Medicaid,” Wyden said. “Just as before, these cruel cuts to Americans’ health care will strike a mortal blow to rural health care, and threaten the health and safety of kids, seniors, Americans with disabilities, and working families across the country.”
Before the text dropped, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who hails from a state with a large number of rural hospitals and that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act in 2023, said he was a “no” on the motion to proceed because of Medicaid.
“It will cause a lot of people to have to be moved off of Medicaid,” he told The Independent Friday evening. “It’s just inescapable. The price tag’s too high.”
Tillis, who is up for re-election in 2028, outlined his opposition to the bill again on Saturday, saying in a statement that the bill would “result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding” for his state, including hospitals and rural communities.
“This will force the state to make painful decisions like eliminating Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands in the expansion population, and even reducing critical services for those in the traditional Medicaid population,” he added.
Billions for Trump’s anti-immigration agenda
.jpeg)
open image in gallery
The bill would also allocate money to hire 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, including $10,000 signing bonuses and a surge of Border Patrol officers. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enf)
The bill would see Trump gain some $350 billion to pursue his anti-immigration agenda, including $46 billion for the U.S.– Mexico border wall and another $45 billion to add another 100,000 detention facility beds for migrants.
In order to meet his goal of deporting some 1 million people per year, the bill would also allocate money to hire 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, including $10,000 signing bonuses and a surge of Border Patrol officers.
Extending Trump’s massive tax cuts
The legislation, which contains roughly $3.8 trillion in tax cuts, would extend the 2017 cuts that Trump signed into law during his first administration, which are set to expire at the end of the year.
The existing tax rates and brackets would become permanent under the bill. There would be new tax breaks added temporarily that Trump campaigned on, which includes his no taxes on tips, overtime pay or some automotive loans.
‘Hardship’ for children and families on food assistance
open image in gallery
Hospitals in Speaker Mike Johnson’s home state of Louisiana were compelled to write to him Saturday to warn that the Medicaid cuts ‘would be historic in their devastation.’ (Getty Images)
Those who receive food stamps through the Agriculture Committee-governed Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, known as SNAP, would face new “hardship” under the current legislation as billions would be slashed from the scheme, campaigners warn.
The bill increases the age at which able-bodied adults without dependent children must work to receive nutritional benefits from 54 to 64 years old, the year before many seniors become eligible for Social Security and Medicare.
In the same token, it also lowers the age at which children can be considered “dependent” from the age of 18 to younger than seven. That provision would mean that parents of children seven years old and older would fit the definition of able-bodied adults without dependents, and therefore require them to work.
“Already, states like Texas have opted out of programs like Summer EBT and denying thousands of children critical food benefits during the summer because of concerns over state obligations to cover SNAP benefit costs,” the Food Research and Action Center warned. “It’s unimaginable the number of children who would miss out on the nutrition they need if this harmful bill is passed.”
Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota, the ranking Democrat on the Agriculture Committee, previously told The Independent the move “may be one of the most egregious items in the entire markup.”