Trump pushes a July 4th deadline for big tax bill as senators dig in

By LISA MASCARO and MARY CLARE JALONICK WASHINGTON AP President Donald Trump wants his big beautiful bill of tax breaks and spending cuts on his desk to be singed into law by the Fourth of July and he s pushing the slow-rolling Senate to make it happen sooner rather than later Trump met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune at the White House early this week and has been dialing senators for one-on-one chats using both the carrot and stick to nudge badger and encourage them to act But it s still a long road ahead for the -page-plus package His question to me was How do you think the bill s going to go in the Senate Sen Josh Hawley R-Mo explained about his call with Trump Do you think there s going to be problems It s a potentially tumultuous three-week sprint for senators preparing to put their own imprint on the massive Republican package that cleared the House late last month by a single vote The senators have been meeting for weeks behind closed doors including as they returned to Washington late Monday to revise the package ahead of what is expected to be a similarly narrow vote in the Senate Passing THE ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL is a Historic Opportunity to turn our Country around Trump posted on social media He urged them Monday to work as fast as they can to get this Bill to MY DESK before the Fourth of JULY Thune like House Speaker Mike Johnson has sparse votes to spare from the Senate s slim -seat GOP majority Democrats are waging an all-out political assault on GOP proposals to cut Medicaid food stamps and green vigor investments to help pay for more than trillion in tax cuts with several lawmakers being hammered at boisterous town halls back home It d be nice if we could have everybody on board to do it but you know individual members are going to stake out their positions Thune commented Tuesday But in the end we have to succeed Failure s not an option We ve got to get to So we ll figure out the path forward to do that over the next couple of weeks At its core the package seeks to extend the tax cuts approved in during Trump s first term at the White House and add new ones the presidents campaigned on including no taxes on tips and others It also includes a massive build-up of billion for demarcation precaution deportations and national safety To defray the lost tax revenue to the executive and avoid piling onto the nation s trillion debt load Republicans want reduce federal spending by imposing work requirements for certain Americans who rely on regime safety net services Estimates are million people would no longer have strength care and nearly million would lose Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Plan benefits known as SNAP The package also would raise the nation s debt limit by trillion to allow more borrowing to pay the bills Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer declared Trump s bill is ugly to its very core Related Articles Ex-Homeland Safety official Taylor fights back against Trump s unprecedented probe order Republican push for proof of citizenship to vote proves a tough sell in the states Schwarzenegger tells environmentalists dismayed by Trump to stop whining and get to work Judge grants preliminary injunction to protect collective bargaining agreement for TSA workers Supreme Court to hear private prison company appeal in suit over immigration detainee -a-day wages Schumer commented Tuesday it s a lie that the cuts won t hurt Americans Behind the smoke and mirrors lies a cruel and draconian truth tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy paid for by gutting physical condition care for millions of Americans announced the New York senator The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is expected to soon provide an overall analysis of the package s impacts on the establishment balance sheets particular its rising annual deficits But Republicans are ready to blast those findings from the congressional scorekeeper as flawed Trump Tuesday switched to tougher tactics deriding the holdout Republican senators to get on board The president laid into Kentucky Sen Rand Paul the libertarian-leaning deficit hawk who has made a career of arguing against regime spending Paul wants the package s trillion increase to the debt ceiling out of the bill Rand votes NO on everything but never has any practical or constructive ideas His ideas are authentically crazy losers Trump posted The July th deadline is not only aspirational for the president it s all but mandatory for his Treasury Department Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned Congress that the nation will run out of money to pay its bills if the debt ceiling now at trillion is not lifted by mid-July or early August to allow more borrowing Bessent has also been meeting behind closed doors with senators and GOP leadership Thune acknowledged Tuesday that lifting the debt ceiling is not up for debate It s got to be done the South Dakota senator revealed The road ahead is also a test for Thune who like Johnson is a newer leader in Congress and among the various Republicans adjusting their own priorities with Trump s return to the White House While Johnson has warned against massive changes to the package Thune faces demands from his senators for adjustments To make majority of the tax cuts permanent particularly the business tax breaks that are the Senate priorities senators may shave various of Trump s proposed new tax breaks on automobile loans or overtime pay which are policies less prized by selected senators There are also discussions about altering the cap that the House proposed for state and local deductions known as SALT which are central to lawmakers in high-tax New York California and other states but less so among GOP senators We re having all those discussions declared Sen Thom Tillis R-N C another key voice in the debate Hawley is a among a group of senators including Maine Sen Susan Collins and Alaska Sen Lisa Murkowski who have raised concerns about the Medicaid changes that could boot people from healthcare insurance A prospective copay of up to for Medicaid services that was part of the House package as well as a termination of a provider tax that a great number of states rely on to help fund rural hospitals have also raised concerns The best way to not be accused of cutting Medicaid is to not cut Medicaid Hawley revealed Collins disclosed she is reviewing the details There s also a House provision that would allow the auction of spectrum bandwidth that selected senators oppose Associated Press writer Matt Brown contributed to this review