OAN Staff James Meyers
8:25am – Friday, February 21st, 2025
The Senate will adopt a $340 billion budget blueprint on Friday morning to help President Donald Trump increase immigration enforcement, energy production and military funding.
advertisement
The Republican-controlled Senate vote came just before 5am after a closing “voting,” in which the senators voted for 33 amendments in 10 hours.
The final vote was 52-48, with Senator Rand Paul (R-KY.) the only Republican to oppose the budget resolution to all Democrats.
“This bill will not be passed,” said Lindsey Graham (Rs.C.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, “there are no hope of getting money for the border.”
In this aisle, this puts pressure on the GOP-controlled home. It plans to take up its own competing budget resolution next week. In addition to money for borders, defense and energy, this version also includes $4.5 trillion tax cuts and $4 trillion debt limit hikes.
Meanwhile, Trump has approved the House version. He calls it “one big beautiful bill,” but GOP Senators hints at a fallback plan if the House blueprint fails.
“For my colleagues at home: we all get there together. If we can pass on a big, beautiful bill that will make tax cuts permanent (not 4-5 years, we'll all cheer here. Nothing pleases me more than a speaker. [Mike] Johnson can put together the bills President Trump wants,” Graham said on the Senate floor Thursday before the votes begin.
“I want to make it happen, but I can't sit on the sidelines and don't have plan B.”
However, Paul said the budget contradicts GOP rhetoric about reducing spending.
“If we were financially conservative, why wouldn't we take our savings from Elon Musk and Doge and move here to help with the border?” Paul said before the vote began. He said on the Senate floor. “Why are we making a brand new bill to increase spending by $340 billion?”
Under this process, Senate rules allow members to propose an unlimited number of amendments.
Two amendments were passed during the voting. One of them is proposed by Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) to create a “deficit-neutral reserve fund related to Medicare and Medicaid protection.”
The budget resolution directs the Senate committee to enact a law that meets its goals, which could be passed by a simple majority rushing through the floor.
The latest measures will spend $175 billion on immigration and border enforcement demanded by border emperor Tom Homan. It would also need to expand the military by spending $150 billion.
In the House, conservatives are calling for sudden spending cuts as moderate Republicans are skeptical due to potential Medicaid cuts.
“The budget solution is merely a patty cake. Sen. John Kennedy of R-La, a member of both the Budget Committee and the Approximate Budget Committee, said: “The only thing I do is The forecast is that the settlement bill will not pass either the House or the Senate without significant spending cuts.”
Vice President JD Vance said he believes Congress is “on track” to pass the settlement package in May or June.
“I think the President learned a lot about how DC works. And I actually told the President yesterday about this and he told me, “Look, you've got two in one Congress.” It is very rare that a settlement bill can be achieved.” That one big beautiful bill,” Vance appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday.
“It's early, isn't it? It takes time for things like this to be put together,” he continued. “If you had a record-breaking settlement bill, I think we would get this done in May or June. I think we're on track to do that.”
Please provide us with information! Receive break news and explode directly into your inbox for free. Please subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
The following ads
Share this post!
