Trump’s tax bill narrowly advances in Senate
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The news: The US Senate voted 51-49 to open debate on President Donald Trump’s signature tax cut bill after lengthy negotiations between Vice President JD Vance and GOP leaders on Saturday.
The numbers: The vote was held open for almost four hours as Republicans scrambled to secure the necessary votes with tweaks to the legislation, as the party pushes toward meeting a 4 July deadline Trump set for passage of the bill. It was not clear what deals (if any) were struck among party members to win their support.
Senate majority leader John Thune has said that further adjustments may still be needed to secure the 50 votes required for the bill to pass the Senate.
An analysis released by the nonpartisan Joint Tax Committee projected that the Senate bill’s tax provisions would reduce government revenue by USD4.5 trillion ($6.9 trillion) over the next 10 years, increasing the country’s USD36.2 trillion government debt.
The context: After the delay to approve the debate on the bill, Democrats demanded that the 940 page bill be read aloud in the chamber, which could delay the start of the debate until Sunday afternoon and push a final vote to Monday.
Former Trump adviser and billionaire Elon Musk again criticised the bill on Saturday, saying via X that “The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!”
If the Senate passes the bill following its debate, it will return to the House of Representatives for final passage before Trump can sign it into law. The House passed its version of the bill last month.
Last week, Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers described US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's move to remove the Section 899 “revenge tax” from Trump’s tax bill as a "really welcome one for Australians".
Chalmers thanked Bessent for his time to meet with him directly and hear his concerns with the retaliatory tax, which was designed to counter digital services taxes and global minimum taxes imposed on US companies by countries including Australia, Canada and several in Europe.
