Arguably, the biggest story of the week is the passing of the big, beautiful bill (BBB) through the Senate, and now headed to the House after a marathon session of voting.
Well, it was called the BBB until Senator Schumer (D-N.Y.) pulled a last-second stunt.
Schumer had the bill renamed, declaring a small victory for Democrats.
The bill appeared as though it would fail until the very last minute.
Republicans were one vote short of the 50 they needed to have JD Vance cast the tiebreaker.
Then, a few bones were given to Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to give some extra funding for Alaska, which gave the GOP the votes it needed, and the bill passed 51-50.
However, just before it passed, during the marathon voting session, Schumer decided to pull one more stunt (he already had them read the bill, line by line, to slow down the process).
The bill has regularly been referred to as BBB, but Schumer decided that he wanted to file a motion that the title of the bill violated the “Byrd Rule.”
Schumer stated, "This is not a ‘big, beautiful bill’ at all. That's why I moved down the floor to strike the title. It is now called ‘the act.’ That's what it's called. But it is really the ‘big ugly betrayal,’ and the American people know it.
"This vote will haunt our Republican colleagues for years to come. Because of this bill, tens of millions will lose health insurance. Millions of jobs will disappear. People will get sick and die, kids will go hungry and the debt will explode to levels we have never seen.
"This bill is so irredeemable that one Republican literally chose to retire rather than vote yes and decimate his own state.”
Schumer got his school-boy win, and now the bill is headed to the House, but there are still quite a few challenges ahead.
There is a significant contingent of GOP House members, nearly two dozen, who are not on board with the changes made in the Senate, so this is far from a gimme as far as getting it passed through the House and on Trump’s desk by July 4.
Some of the changes made to the bill are not sitting well with members, and if any changes are made, the bill will have to go back to the Senate for another vote, and they just don’t have the time for that if they want this on Trump’s desk for Independence Day.
I am not saying it won’t be done, but I am saying it is going to be challenging. If the Freedom Caucus holds its ground, Speaker Johnson (R-LA) has a big problem on his hands.
