Senators broach $2 trillion in spending cuts in WH meeting with Trump
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This is John Thune. Photo via Getty Images
Key Senate Republicans strategized with President Trump on how to cut spending deeper than the House-passed budget bill and pressed him to make his proposed business tax cuts permanent.
Why it matters: "Failure is not an option," Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters after the hour-and-a-half meeting on Wednesday.
- "We are going to cut some more money from what the House has done," Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas.) told Axios.
- "Can we get to $2 trillion? Do we make all those business tax provisions permanent or not?" he said. "I think those are the big issues."
- "We had a very, very robust and hopeful discussion with the president today," Finance Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) told reporters.
Inside the room: The members of the Senate Finance Committee were joined by Vice President Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
- Hassett shared his own economic forecasts, suggesting that the economy can grow faster than 4% annually if the bill is passed into law.
- "The President is so positive about the 4.6 growth number," Marshall said. "The tariff money coming in is more than we were expecting."
Zoom in: The Congressional Budget Office projected that the bill will add $2.4 trillion to the deficit over 10 years.
- "All the talk about how this bill is going to generate an increase in our deficit, absolutely wrong," Crapo said.
Between the lines: The SALT deduction cap, a key sticking point with the House, came up.
- Thune has been clear the Senate has some some serious policy differences on raising the cap to $40,000, as the House bill does.
- But he also signaled some flexibility on SALT. "It's about 51 and 218 so we will work with our house counterparts and the White House to try and get that," Thune said.
- Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) frequently serves as a go-between for the Senate and the House, and sat in on a House GOP meeting this morning where he raised the issue of SALT with colleagues.
- When asked how much wiggle room there is for the Senate to make changes, he told Axios "we don't have a lot."
The intrigue: Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) shared his spending charts, which show how federal deficit have increased dramatically over the last twenty years -- and will explode again.
Zoom out: Thune is barreling forward to try to meet a July 4th deadline with major, lingering disputes in his conference — and with the House.
- Text of the One Big Beautiful Bill (Senate's Version) is now rolling out— beginning with some of the easier parts as Republicans hash out major differences over Medicaid, taxes and spending cuts.
- The Armed Services and Environment and Public Works portions of the bill came out on Wednesday, including stopping more spending under the Inflation Reduction Act.
- Chairs of the Armed Services, Commerce and Banking committees presented on their parts of the bill during a closed door meeting with Senate Republicans Wednesday afternoon, sources familiar told Axios.
- Additional briefings from other key committee chairs are expected in the coming days and weeks.
What to watch: The Finance committee will be the last across the finish line, grappling with the biggest and most controversial parts of the bill — taxes and Medicaid.
