Musk Attacks Trump’s Bill Again
This development has once again resulted in another implosion within the MAGHA world. Elon Musk, after finding peace in a truce with Donald Trump after his ugly fallout with the president, has once again renewed his scrutiny.
This time, instead of aiming at Trump directly, the richest man on Earth has trained his gun at the US Senate Republicans, who have a wafer-thin majority in the upper house of the US legislature.Musk expressed his disapproval through his social media platform X, wherein he put out a series of posts and reposts admonishing the Republican party and the bill.
In a post pinned on his X account, he said, “The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country! Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”
The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!
Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future. https://t.co/TZ9w1g7zHF— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 28, 2025
Musk also added other posts attacking the bill.
Polls show that this bill is political suicide for the Republican Party pic.twitter.com/HJwKZ9g4tu
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 28, 2025
Good question. Who?
At the same time, this bill raises the debt ceiling by $5 TRILLION, the biggest increase in history, putting America in the fast lane to debt slavery! https://t.co/6WxVgt9pRl
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 28, 2025
US Senate Passes Bill
Lawmakers voted 51-49 to open debate on the 940-page megabill, with two of Trump’s fellow Republicans joining Democrats to oppose the legislation that would fund the president’s top immigration, border, tax-cut and military priorities.
Trump on social media hailed the “great victory” for his “great, big, beautiful bill.”
After hours of delay, during which Republican leaders and Vice President JD Vance worked behind closed doors to persuade last-minute holdouts to support the measure, Democrats demanded that the megabill first be read aloud in the chamber – a task that could delay the start of the debate until Sunday afternoon.
Democrats say the bill’s tax cuts would disproportionately benefit the wealthy at the expense of social programmes for lower-income Americans.
News agency Reuters reported, “Senate Republicans are scrambling to pass a radical bill, released to the public in the dead of night, praying the American people don’t realize what’s in it,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor.
“Democrats are going to force this chamber to read it from start to finish,” he said. Once the bill has been read, lawmakers will begin up to 20 hours of debate on the legislation. That will be followed by a marathon amendment session, known as a “vote-a-rama,” before the Senate votes on passage. Lawmakers said they hoped to complete work on the bill on Monday.
Republican Senators Thom Tillis and Rand Paul voted against opening debate, a move that seemed for a time to be in danger of failing.
Trump attacked Tillis, who opposed the bill’s cuts to the Medicaid healthcare programmes for lower-income Americans, which he said would be devastating for his native North Carolina. Tillis is up for reelection next year.
“Numerous people have come forward wanting to run in the Primary against ‘Senator Thom’ Tillis. I will be meeting with them over the coming weeks,” the president posted.
Paul opposed the legislation because it would raise the federal borrowing limit on the $36.2 trillion US debt by an additional $5 trillion.
“Did Rand Paul Vote ‘NO’ again tonight? What’s wrong with this guy???” Trump said on social media.
In The Crisis
Saturday’s vote was in limbo for hours as Vance, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, and other top Republicans sought to persuade last-minute holdouts to support the legislation. It was not clear what deals, if any were struck to win over their support.
Hardline Republican Senators Rick Scott, Mike Lee and Cynthia Lummis, who want deeper cuts in federal spending, voted to support the bill in the end. Another hardliner, Senator Ron Johnson, initially voted no but flipped his vote and backed the legislation.
Trump was monitoring the vote from the Oval Office late into the night, a senior White House official said.
The megabill would extend the 2017 tax cuts that were Trump’s main legislative achievement during his first term as president, cut other taxes and boost spending on the military and border security.
The nonpartisan Joint Tax Committee released an analysis projecting that the Senate bill’s tax provisions would reduce government revenue by $4.5 trillion over the next decade, increasing the $36.2-trillion U.S. government debt.
Medicaid Changes
Republicans from states with large rural populations have opposed a reduction in state tax revenue for Medicaid providers, including rural hospitals. The newly released legislation would delay that reduction and would include $25 billion to support rural Medicaid providers from 2028 to 2032.
The legislation would raise the cap on federal deductions for state and local taxes to $40,000 with an annual 1% inflation adjustment through 2029, after which it would fall back to the current $10,000. The bill would also phase the cap down for those earning more than $500,000 a year.
That is a major concern of House Republicans from coastal states, including New York, New Jersey and California, who play an important role in keeping the party’s narrow House majority.
Republicans are using a legislative manoeuvre to bypass the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation in the 100-member chamber.
Democrats will focus their firepower with amendments aimed at reversing Republican spending cuts to programmes that provide government-backed healthcare to the elderly, poor and disabled, as well as food aid to low-income families.
The bill also would raise the Treasury Department’s debt ceiling by trillions of dollars to stave off a potentially disastrous default on the nation’s debt in the coming months.
If the Senate passes the bill, it will then return to the House of Representatives for final passage before Trump can sign it into law. The House passed its version of the bill last month.
(With Inputs From Reuters)
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