It was announced on cable news today that the Senate has passed Trump’s ‘Big Billionaire Bill.” The vote was a tie 50 – 50 with the tie breaking vote coming from VP JD Vance. Senators Rand Paul, Thom Tillis and Susan Collins voted against the bill. Senator Tillis said yesterday that he will not run for the Senate again nex year when his term is up. A significant part of the bill goes toward immigration enforcement and ICE funds.
Does her “Hail Mary” vote against the Trump megabill mean she will receive funding from Elon Musk for her upcoming election in 2026? In recent days, Musk has been highly critical of Trump’s bill, promising to defeat anyone who votes for it. It is a known voting pattern of Senator Collins (R) that she only votes against a Trump agenda when she is fully aware that the piece of legislation will pass without her vote. That could be why she never divulges her vote ahead of time because she is busy counting votes up and until the actual vote itself.
Last night Demorats ran a vote-a-rama that went on for many hours. It was intended to show the public just how cruel and greedy US Senators are nowadays. It did demonstrate that and will be used to defeat Senators next year in their re-election efforts. Democrats attached approximaely 29 amendments to the Senate bill with each amendment voted on. For example, Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) added an amendent to the bill that would guarantee kids unver 12 are guaranteed SNAP benefits. All Senators, including Collins (R-ME) voted against this amendment. However, her critics say she did nothig to persuade others to follow her example because she was unable to make a deal with Trump allies.
Last night around 10:00 pm, some Democrats said that the vote was going slowly beause Republicans didn’t have the required votes to pass the “Big Billionaire Bill.” However, that changed this morning when Sen. Lisa Murkowski, (R-AL) caved into political pressure from the Trump administration. Reports are that she received a “special carve out” for Alaskans to win her vote.
The bill is now back in the House Rules Committee for its consideration. Rural hospitals are expected to be hurt by this measure.