Last night, the Senate voted 51-49 to advance the Big Beautiful Bill into its final phases before passage.
The bill will now have 20 hours of floor debate where the Democrats will probably yell a lot, but it only requires 51 votes to pass. It then heads to the House for reconciliation with their version of the bill. The House also has a razor-thin margin (215-214), so House Majority Leader Mike Johnson wants to approve it as is.
There was a ton of drama late on Saturday night, mostly because Sen. Majority Leader John Thune and Thom Tillis went full RINO so JD Vance had to go to the Senate to rally the troops and prepare to be the tie-breaking vote.
Speed is the name of the game with the Big Beautiful Bill. If the bill does not get passed before Congress breaks for Independence Day (their recess technically starts on Monday), it will not only be embarrassing to many Republican lawmakers as they face their constituents at parades and other events, but it will remove the momentum that Republicans need to get major items on their agenda passed (remember that midterms are only a year away!).
To this end, the unelected Senate parliamentarian appointed by Democrat Harry Reid in 2012 has spent the last week stripping the bill of key provisions, saying they don't follow the rules for being included in a budget bill like this and need to be passed on their own.
While it's unclear why anyone needs to listen to the unelected advisor, John Thune has refused to fire her, even though he can do so at any time.
Other Republicans like Thom Tillis spent Saturday stonewalling the bill, leading to Trump's fury.
Not wanting to waste an opportunity where Republicans are busy shooting themselves in the feet, the Democrats tried a last-minute stall tactic on their own.
Chucky Schumer, who just got back from the hospital, decided to slow down the bill's passage by forcing it to be read aloud on the Senate floor. This will take at least 15 hours, followed by debate, followed by the vote, followed by House deliberation (if you're good at math, you know this vote is going to come down to the wire).
As of Sunday morning, Senate staffers are still going...
You can watch the live feed here. šš
There is a silver lining to the dumb stall tactic though!
Trump wants to pass the bill before Congress leaves DC. If it doesn't get done, well, let's just say heads are gonna roll!
P.S. Now check out our latest video š
