- The Trump-backed bill has split the Republican Party as senators have continued to argue over key provisions in the proposed legislation that stands to overhaul government taxes and spending. On Monday the Senate began a “vote-o-rama” on changes to the bill after barely advancing it past a procedural hurdle over the weekend.
President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-and-spending proposal, branded the “Big Beautiful Bill,” entered a crucial session in the Senate Monday, promising massive changes to taxes, federal spending, and the future regulatory landscape. But even as Trump champions the legislation as a legacy-defining win, deep fractures within the Republican Party and growing opposition from business leaders like Elon Musk stand to threaten its path forward.
The bill would permanently extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and introduce new tax breaks—including zero taxes on tips and overtime pay—while also injecting billions into border security and military spending. But the same legislation proposes steep cuts to social programs like Medicaid and food stamps. The net effect would balloon the national debt by an estimated $3.3 trillion over the next decade, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.
Those stark trade-offs are sparking fierce debate and some dissent from within the GOP’s ranks.
“The fundamental problem that Republicans face is that they support a level of tax revenue that is not nearly enough to pay for the government spending that most Republicans also support,” Doug Elmendorf, professor of public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, told Fortune. “So you have camps of people, some of whom really do want to cut spending way back to align with the level of revenues they support, but also other Republicans who understand that the American people don’t want to give up the principal benefits and services they receive. That camp does not want to cut spending back, they want to hope that the deficit problem goes away.”
Senators Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) are among prominent Republicans voicing sharp criticism of the bill. Tillis, who recently announced he will not seek reelection, argued the deep cuts to Medicaid break Trump’s own promises to protect health coverage and would devastate constituents. If the bill passes, an estimated 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034, according to the CBO. Tillis denounced the bill during the Senate’s contentious Sunday vote, saying, “It is inescapable this bill will betray the promise Donald Trump made.”
Moderate GOP lawmakers, such as Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.), are also warning about Medicaid cuts. And according to Politico, rifts over Medicaid provisions in the bill had several Republican lawmakers still conflicted over the bill during Monday’s amendment voting session.
Meanwhile, fiscal hawks like Paul are equally concerned about the price tag and namely how it would affect the debt ceiling. The Senate’s budget blueprint includes a provision that would raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion. “That is an admission that they know they aren’t controlling the deficit,” Paul told the Senate on Sunday. “They know that the ensuing years will add trillions more.”
As for tax provisions, the bill’s attempt to raise the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction cap from $10,000 to $40,000, then back to $10,000, has also fueled frustration among lawmakers from high-tax states and stands to be a potential point of contention.
Beyond Capitol Hill, Trump’s bill is drawing rebukes from influential corners of the business and cultural worlds.
Elon Musk has been particularly vocal, calling the bill “political suicide” for the Republican Party. Several polls appear to bolster this claim, demonstrating the bill’s unpopularity with Americans. A survey by the Washington Post found that 42% of Americans opposed the bill and only 23% supported it.
Musk also claimed the legislation was “utterly insane and destructive.” The Tesla and SpaceX CEO warned the bill’s regulatory changes and spending cuts could kill jobs in future-focused industries and stifle innovation.
“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country! Utterly insane and destructive,” the world’s richest man wrote on X. “It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”
Musk’s criticism focused on provisions in the bill that would eliminate Biden-era tax credits for renewable energy, such as solar, wind, and battery manufacturing. The clean-energy tax credit amendments are also a point of concern for Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).
The Tesla CEO’s opposition to the bill’s energy provisions touch on certain key weaknesses in the bill, according to Elmendorf. Aside from being potentially harmful for companies invested in the clean-energy business, he said the provisions would also raise electricity prices for many Americans.
“It’s an odd thing for an administration that won an election significantly because people think prices are too high to then go ahead and make a policy that will raise prices of the fundamental necessity of electricity,” Elmendorf said.
Meanwhile, leaders in the artificial intelligence sector, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, have condemned provisions in the bill that would preempt state-level AI regulations for a decade. “Without a clear plan for a federal response, a moratorium would give us the worst of both worlds—no ability for states to act, and no national policy as a backstop,” he wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times.
The AI moratorium has also sparked discontent from Republicans who argue the provision encroaches on the GOP’s historical support for states’ rights.
Despite the internal and external discord, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is pushing to finalize the bill before the July 4 holiday. Should it pass the Senate, the legislation would return to the House—where it narrowly passed last month—for final reconciliation.
“The president is very well aware that this bill needs to not only pass out of the Senate, but it needs to go back to the House, and we need the full weight of the Republican conference to get behind this bill—and we expect them to, and we are confident that they will,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a White House briefing on Monday.
For Trump, the stakes are high. With his eye on cementing his policy legacy and energizing his base ahead of midterm elections, he’s likely betting big on the “Big Beautiful Bill” as proof that he can deliver sweeping reforms.
