Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) is winnowing down the number of Republicans not yet sold on a blueprint to unlock President Donald Trump’s agenda, with a Wednesday meeting at the White House winning over several budget hawks but other senators still undecided.
Fiscal conservatives who were previously noncommital on the blueprint, which authorizes spending levels for Trump’s tax, border, and energy priorities, told reporters they would vote “yes” on a test vote that could come as soon as Thursday.
Their reluctance centered on the level of deficit reduction written into the Senate’s budget text, which aspirationally seeks to cut $2 trillion across 10 years but offers no firm commitments. At the meeting, Trump assured those skeptics he would take deficit reduction seriously, a message he reiterated on social media Wednesday night.
“We are going to cut Spending, and right-size the Budget back to where it should be. The Senate Plan has my Complete and Total Support,” Trump said on Truth Social.
On Thursday, Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL), Ron Johnson (R-WI), and Mike Lee (R-UT) told reporters they were a definitive “yes” after signaling newfound openness to the plan hours earlier.
“His commitment was important to me,” said Scott, who asked Trump to follow through on his promise to erase the $1.9 trillion federal deficit. “I believe he’ll do what he said he’s going to do.”
Thune still has skeptics of the blueprint. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told reporters he’s still “reviewing” the resolution given it will likely force a rollback of Medicaid. The blueprint preserves House language instructing the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has purview over Medicaid, to find $880 billion in cuts, while the Senate text commits to protecting the program, except for “waste, fraud, and abuse.”
“I mean, we’re voting on the House instructions that have Medicaid cuts after we were told we wouldn’t be,” Hawley said on Thursday.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), one of the Senate’s GOP centrists, also expressed reservations over the possible Medicaid cuts, according to Semafor.
Thune can only afford to lose three Republicans when the Senate holds a procedural vote on the resolution in a chamber he controls 53-47. All Democrats are expected to vote “no,” while at least one GOP senator, Rand Paul (R-KY), refuses to lend his support given the blueprint includes a hike in the federal debt ceiling.
He plans to offer an amendment during the Senate’s “vote-a-rama,” a marathon series of floor votes, to strike the debt ceiling increase out of the legislation almost entirely, though his measure is expected to fail.
The remaining GOP resistance, expressed most vocally by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), centers on the resolution’s use of a novel accounting technique that would zero out the cost of extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, in effect skirting around provisions projected to add trillions to the deficit.
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Scott told the Washington Examiner that the White House’s commitment to rescission legislation that codifies much of the Department of Government Efficiency’s slashing, or in some cases shuttering, of federal agencies helped influence his vote.
“What we talked about is, you know, the president’s got to take a lead on this, and he’s committed to doing it,” Scott said. “He’s committed to balancing the budget.”