Senate Republicans have approved a Trump-backed spending bill in a 51-48 vote, largely along party lines. The bill emphasizes spending cuts and tax breaks and has been described by Trump as his “big, beautiful bill,” a key component of his economic agenda.
Although the Senate passed the bill during an all-night session, there is much that still needs to be hammered out concerning tax breaks and spending cuts in the coming weeks.
Currently, many Americans are bracing for a recession as the stock market has plummeted and economists warn of a recession. Democrats objected to the spending bill, arguing that it appears to protect the rich by cutting safety net programs to give the rich more tax breaks.
According to The Associated Press, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) criticized Trump’s economic policies broadly, and placing the blame directly onto the Republican Party, telling the AP, “Trump’s policies are a disaster.” Schumer went on to criticize Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in the same manner. “Republicans could snuff it out tonight, if they wanted,” Schumer added.
The Republicans, like Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, framed the budget bill, which authorizes spending $175 billion on Trump’s mass deportation campaign and another $175 billion in order to build up the military, as their attempt to keep the mandate they were given by voters. “It fulfills our promises to secure the border, to rebuild our economy and to restore peace through strength,” Barrasso told the AP.
On the Democratic side, Sen. Elizabeth Warren told the AP that although they did not have the votes to stop the Republican agenda or their budget, they could use the contents of the bill itself to expend their political capital to create outrage.
Warren’s comments call to mind the 24 hour speech by New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker that served as a call to action for the Democratic Party to use every tool at their disposal to fight Trump’s agenda and his policies.
“We may not have the votes to stop them all by ourselves,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told the AP, “but we can use what the Republicans are trying to do with this tax bill to ignite a fire all across this country.”
According to The New York Times, although the bill did incite a fair amount of intra-party debate among Republican senators regarding Medicaid and Medicare, only two senators, Rand Paul (R-KY) and Susan Collins (R-ME), voted against the bill after both raised objections.
The Democrats, though they could not stop the budget from being passed, raised a number of objections through their proposed amendments to the bill in a preview of attacks they will likely raise in opposition to how Republicans voted on those issues.
“Our amendments will give Republicans the chance to join us in hitting the kill switch on Donald Trump’s tariffs, on DOGE, on the attacks against Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid,” Sen. Schumer said April 4, before the voting on the amendments started. “Will Republicans join us tonight and stand up to Donald Trump before he craters the economy?”
Based on how they voted during the amendment phase, not only are Republicans in the Senate going along with an inflated spending bill, but they also do not care about how much the rising costs created by Trump’s tariff plans will cost everyday Americans at the grocery store.
As Schumer told The Washington Post on April 3, the Democratic Party planned to unmask the Republican Party for the villains they are using the political processes available to them.
“They’re mean, they’re nasty, they’re uncaring. We, tonight and tomorrow, are going to show just who they are,” Schumer said.
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