Senators launch a weekend of work to meet Trump’s deadline for passing his tax and spending cuts

WASHINGTON AP The Senate is preparing for a key procedural vote Saturday as Republicans race to pass President Donald Trump s package of tax breaks spending cuts and bolstered deportation funds by his July Fourth deadline Republicans are using their majorities in Congress to push aside Democratic opposition but they have run into a series of political and initiative setbacks Not all GOP lawmakers are on board with proposals to reduce spending on Medicaid food stamps and other programs as a way to help cover the cost of extending specific trillion in Trump tax breaks Ahead of the expected roll call the White House published a comment of administrative plan saying it strongly supports passage of the bill that implements critical aspects of the president s agenda Trump himself was at his golf class in Virginia on Saturday with GOP senators posting about it on social media It s time to get this ordinance across the finish line explained Senate Majority Leader John Thune R-S D though the vote time was still uncertain The -page bill was distributed shortly before midnight Friday and senators are expected to grind through the days ahead with hours of potentially all-night debate and countless amendments Senate passage could be days away and the bill would need to return to the House for a final round of votes before it could reach the White House With the narrow Republicans majorities in the House and Senate leaders need almost every lawmaker on board in the face of essentially unified opposition from Democrats Sen Bernie Moreno R-Ohio opened the day s session with an impassioned defense of the package that he announced has been misrepresented by its critics Read it for yourself he disclosed Make-or-break moment for GOP The weekend session could be a make-or-break moment for Trump s party which has invested much of its political capital on his signature domestic framework plan Trump is pushing Congress to wrap it up even as he sometimes gives mixed signals allowing for more time At latest events at the White House including Friday Trump has admonished the grandstanders among GOP holdouts to fall in line We can get it done Trump noted in a social media post It will be a wonderful Celebration for our Country The bill is an ambitious but complicated series of GOP priorities At its core it would make permanent multiple of the tax breaks from Trump s first term that would otherwise expire by year s end if Congress fails to act resulting in a promising tax increase on Americans The bill would add new breaks including no taxes on tips and commit billion to national precaution including for Trump s mass deportation agenda But the spending cuts that Republicans are relying on to offset the lost tax revenues are causing dissent within the GOP ranks Several lawmakers say the cuts go too far particularly for people receiving wellbeing care through Medicaid Meanwhile conservatives worried about the nation s debt are pushing for steeper cuts Sen Thom Tillis R-N C stated he remains concerned about the fundamentals of the package and will not assistance the procedural motion to begin debate Sen Rand Paul of Kentucky has been opposed to the measure to raise the nation s debt limit by trillion And Sen Ron Johnson R-Wis pushing for deeper cuts disclosed he needed to see the final legislative text After setbacks Republicans revise specific proposals The release of that draft had been delayed as the Senate parliamentarian reviewed the bill to ensure it complied with the chamber s strict Byrd Rule named for the late Sen Robert C Byrd D-W Va It largely bars guidelines matters from inclusion in budget bills unless a provision can get votes to overcome objections That would be a tall order in a Senate with a - GOP edge and Democrats unified against Trump s bill Republicans suffered a series of setbacks after several proposals were determined to be out of compliance by the chief arbiter of the Senate s rules One plan would have shifted a few food stamp costs from the federal establishment to the states a second would have gutted the funding structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau But over the past days Republicans have rapidly revised those proposals and reinstated them The final text includes a proposal for cuts to a Medicaid provider tax that had run into parliamentary objections and opposition from several senators worried about the fate of rural hospitals The new version extends the start date for those cuts and establishes a billion fund to aid rural hospitals and providers The bulk states impose the provider tax as a way to boost federal Medicaid reimbursements Chosen Republicans argue that is a scam and should be abolished The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has noted that under the House-passed version of the bill particular million more people would go without robustness care and at least million fewer would qualify for food aid The CBO has not yet publicly assessed the Senate draft which proposes steeper reductions Top income-earners would see about a tax cut under the House bill while the package would cost the poorest Americans the CBO noted SALT dispute shakes things up The Senate included a compromise over the so-called SALT provision a deduction for state and local taxes that has been a top priority of lawmakers from New York and other high-tax states but the issue remains unsettled The current SALT cap is a year and a handful of Republicans needed to boost it to a year The final draft includes a cap but for five years instead of Numerous Republican senators say that is still too generous At least one House GOP holdout Rep Nick LaLota of New York had revealed that would be insufficient Trump s deadline nears Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York stated Republicans dropped the bill in the dead of night and are rushing to finish the bill before the community fully knows what s in it House Speaker Mike Johnson who sent his colleagues home for the weekend with plans to be on call to return to Washington had mentioned they are very close to finishing up We would still like to meet that July Fourth self-imposed deadline disclosed Johnson R-La Johnson and Thune have stayed close to the White House relying on Trump to pressure holdout lawmakers