Donald Trump gleaned an important legislative victory on Tuesday. The US Senate has narrowly adopted its budget bill of several thousand dollars, which includes massive tax credits, but also large health cuts.
At the end of more than 26 hours of votes on dozens of amendments, the Republican senators finally managed to overcome their disputes to adopt this “great and beautiful law”, as the American president baptized.
But the case was played in a pocket handkerchief. Despite a republican majority of 53 seats out of 100, the vote ended 50 votes against 50 and it was the vice-president JD Vance who then had the last word, as the Constitution wants.
“With this law, we carry out the mandate entrusted to us in November”, during the presidential and legislative elections, said John Thune, the chief of the Republican senators, after a two -day legislative marathon.
Some reluctant Republicans
The House of Representatives is now launched in a sprint to adopt the revised version before Friday. For almost a week, Donald Trump has been pushing parliamentarians to pass this flagship text from his second mandate before July 4, the day of the national holiday, which he set as a symbolic deadline to promulgate it. A vote is scheduled for Wednesday.
But elected conservatives of the Chamber have publicly displayed their reluctance to certain changes made by the Senate to their initial version. However, the Republicans have only a thin majority and the process may well be delayed.
Donald Trump made the bill the cornerstone of his economic program. At stake: the extension of colossal tax credits adopted during its first mandate, but also the elimination of taxation on tips or additional billions of dollars for defense and the fight against immigration.
Cups in health and food aid
But experts and politicians point the finger at the expected explosion of the public deficit. The Congress’s Budget Office, responsible for non -supported the impact of public finance bills, estimates that the text would increase debt by more than $ 3000 billion by 2034.
The extension of “Trump tax credits” alone would cost 4500 billion. To partially compensate for it, the Republicans predict in particular to slash in Medicaid, a public health insurance program on which millions of Americans depend on modest income.
A drastic reduction in the SNAP program, the main food aid in the country, is also planned, as well as the abolition of numerous tax incentives with renewable energies adopted under Joe Biden. Measures fiercely denounced by the Democrats.
Information processed in the 7:00 p.m. hourly bulletin
AFP/Asch
