Senate GOP approves framework for Trump's tax breaks and spending cuts after late-night session
Source: AP
By KEVIN FREKING, LISA MASCARO and LEAH ASKARINAM
Updated 7:35 AM CDT, April 5, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans plugged away overnight and into early Saturday morning to approve their multitrillion-dollar tax breaks and spending cuts framework, hurtling past Democratic opposition toward what President Donald Trump calls the “big, beautiful bill” that’s central to his agenda.
The vote, 51-48, fell along mostly party lines, but with sharp dissent from two prominent Republicans. It could not have come at a more difficult political moment, with the economy churning after Trump’s new tariffs sent stocks plummeting and experts warning of soaring costs for consumers and threats of a potential recession. Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky both voted against the measure.
But with a nod from Trump, GOP leaders held on. Approval paves the way for Republicans in the months ahead to try to power a tax cut bill through both chambers of Congress over the objections of Democrats, just as they did in Trump’s first term with unified party control in Washington.
“Let the voting begin,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Friday night.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/senate-budget-tax-cuts-trump-485845a9c0b7dfc5d2194d4c1e4723ae
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It's a very important question. I agree 100% about what gutting Mecicaid would mean. Medicare, too, for that matter, but Medicaid affects a much broader demographic age wise, including families with babies and children. 
I don't understand the GOP obsession with helping people as little as possible. If they had their way, they (at least some of them) would probably cancel both programs entirely, along with the every other part of this country's extremely week social safety net. Social Darwinism at its worst!
