section_path: Domestic policy/Legislation/"Big, Beautiful" Budget Bill
section_name: "Big, Beautiful" Budget Bill
paragraph_text: "Big, Beautiful" Budget Bill
  
  President Trump is supporting what he calls the "Big, Beautiful" Budget Bill. This bill was passed in a close vote by the House of Representatives in on May 22, and has yet to be voted on by the Senate.
  
  The bill would make permanent the Trump tax cuts of 2017 and would also make tip income and overtime pay be tax-free. As a cost savings, it would introduce a work requirement for able-bodied adults without children who are on Medicaid.
  
  The 1,116-page bill would do a number of other things such as increasing military spending by $150 billion, including $25 billion towards the planned Golden Dome defense system. The bill puts $50 billion towards construction of a border wall and $4 billion towards Border Patrol.
  
  Because the overall bill would add to yearly budget deficits, four Republican Senators have expressed doubts. And as of early June, passage in its current form is in doubt. There were also concerns because of the recent downgrading of the U.S. credit rating that Treasury bonds would require higher interest rates to sell the normal amount. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) said that every 1% increase in interest rates costs taxpayers about $360 Billion more a year just to carry the national debt.
  
  In the first week of June 2025, Trump and Musk began publicly feuding. Musk called the budget bill a "disgusting abomination." Trump wondered aloud about cancelling some government contracts with Musk corporations. Musk wrote on X: "Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!". Jeffrey Epstein was the financier with convictions for sex abuse.
  
  Musk also floated the idea of starting a new political party.
  
  On June 16, Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee released their version. This would lower the current plans for how much persons can deduct from their income tax for state and local taxes (SALT deduction). It would also lower the Medicaid “provider tax” from a current 6 percent to 3.5 percent by the year 2031. This provider tax is one source of funding that states use to pay for their share of Medicaid. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) said, “This is a whole new system that is going to defund rural hospitals effectively in order to what, pay for solar panels in China? This needs a lot of work.”