'Cannot accept it': Senate Republicans give ultimatum to Mike Johnson
As House Republicans rush to gather enough support to approve President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill," which aims to make Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent, Senate Republicans are unwilling to accept the legislation, NBC News reported Thursday.
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) has said that "the product coming out of various House committees cannot pass the Senate as it currently stands."
“No. We’ll make changes,” Hoeven said, per the report.
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Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) was quoted as saying that the proposal should "go much further, much further” and she “cannot accept it as it came out of the” House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“We’ve been talking with the House and there’s a lot of things we agree on. … But there’ll be changes in a number of areas," Fischer added.
The legislation includes a range of additional tax reductions, and several Republicans have opposed a provision in the bill related to state and local taxes.
GOP senators have started pinpointing several elements in the bill they want to change, according to NBC. These include issues related to Medicaid, clean energy investments, spectrum regulations, and the overall increase in government spending.
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Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) also voiced his opposition to the developing House proposal this week, warning that it would significantly worsen the national deficit.
“I don’t see any scenario where it’s going to be deficit-neutral. That’s my problem,” he told NBC News. “By my calculation, this is going to increase the deficit by $4 trillion," he added.
Meanwhile, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) aims to advance the legislation through the House Budget Committee on Friday. He is pushing for full passage of the bill, with certain modifications, according to the report.
Earlier on Thursday, Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.) hinted that he may not even vote for the bill when it comes up in the House Budget Committee, which could doom it before it even gets a vote by the full House of Representatives.
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"As a member of the House Budget Committee, I share @RepChipRoy’s concerns. Further, after a meeting with the CBO this morning, it’s clear we don’t know the true cost of this bill or whether it adheres to the Budget blueprint," Brecheen wrote on the social platform X.
"We have a duty to know the true cost of this legislation before advancing it. If we are to operate in truth, we must have true numbers—even if that means taking some more time to obtain that truth," he added.
As the Republican-supported bill progresses through the House, it introduces several new and unexpected tax cut proposals that could affect the finances of millions of Americans.
