Senate GOP Faces Internal Pushback on $3.8T Reconciliation Megabill

The GOP's ambitious 'One Big Beautiful Bill' aimed at enacting President Trump's domestic policy agenda faces significant challenges as it moves through the Senate. Senate Majority Leader John Thune must navigate a narrow Republican majority, with key holdouts including fiscal conservatives like Sens. Ron Johnson, Rand Paul, and Mike Lee demanding deeper spending cuts and opposing the bill's growing national debt. Simultaneously, a coalition of moderate Republicans, including Sens. Susan Collins, Josh Hawley, Lisa Murkowski, and others, are united in opposing cuts to Medicaid and other safety-net programs, leveraging their influence to push for significant changes. These divisions highlight a broader struggle within the GOP between deficit hawks and Medicaid moderates, complicating the path forward for the bill. The Senate's version of the bill is expected to alter provisions such as Medicaid, the state and local tax deduction, and the child tax credit, with the final product needing to return to the House for approval. This internal GOP tension underscores the difficulty in passing the bill by the July 4 deadline.