The U.S. Senate passed the “Big and Beautiful” tax and spending bill, strongly supported by President Trump, with a vote of 51 in favor to 50 against on January 1st.
In recent days, American entrepreneur Elon Musk has repeatedly criticized this bill. In his latest post on social media, he wrote: “This is easy to escalate. Especially easy. But I need to restrain myself now.”
This photo was taken on January 18th in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., by Xinhua News Agency’s Wu Xiaoling.
During the Senate review process, Democrats employed various means to delay the bill’s passage through the Senate. By noon on January 1st, the bill only passed with a one-vote margin.
Due to significant modifications made by the Senate, the version approved by it still needs to be re-passed by the House of Representatives before it can be signed by the President and become law. Trump has called for Congress to pass this bill by July 4th.
Or further increasing debt and deficit
The “Big and Beautiful” bill includes extending the corporate and individual tax cuts introduced by Trump during his first term in 2017, exempting tips and overtime wages from taxation, reducing investments in health insurance and nutrition assistance programs, and authorizing billions of dollars in funding for illegal immigration and national defense.
On June 27th, President Trump attended a meeting at the White House in Washington. Photo by Hu Yousong, Xinhua News Agency.
The Senate version of this bill also stipulates that starting from September 30 this year, the United States will no longer provide tax credits for electric vehicles, while wind and solar projects that commence before the end of 2027 will enjoy tax credits.
Moreover, the Senate version of the bill is expected to further increase the U.S. debt ceiling by $5 trillion compared to the previous House of Representatives version.
According to estimates by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, the House and Senate versions of the bills are expected to increase the U.S. deficit by $2.
8 trillion dollars and nearly 3.3 trillion dollars. Moreover, the amendments to the healthcare subsidy and Affordable Care Act in the Senate version bill will lead to an increase of nearly 12 million uninsured Americans by 2034.
Some Democratic senators have accused the Senate version bill as “rich pickings for the wealthy.” Bernie Sanders from Vermont said it was a “gift to the billionaire class,” while Gary Peters from Michigan described it as “rash and irresponsible.”
U.S. media reports indicate that market concerns over the country’s fiscal sustainability are pushing the dollar-to-euro exchange rate to its lowest point since September 2021. The dollar index, which measures the currency against six major currencies, fell below 96.50 overnight on January 1st, marking the lowest level since late February 2022.
Musk Battles Trump Over “Guns”
Musk had previously criticized the “Bigger is Better” bill as “extremely crazy and destructive.” He reposted multiple comments on the bill on June 30th, stating that if the bill were passed, a new political party called “The American Party” would be established the next day. On July 1st, Trump mentioned he might consider expelling Musk from the United States.
This photo was taken by Wu Xiaoling of Xinhua News Agency at a Washington D.C. event held by Musk on January 20th.
Musk wrote: “Every Congressman who promised to cut government spending during the campaign but then voted for the biggest debt growth bill in history should feel ashamed! If my last thing on this earth is to do, it would be to make them lose their party primary next year.”
Trump responded by saying that Musk attacked the “Bigger is Better” bill because it eliminated subsidies for new energy vehicles. According to previous statements by U.S. media, this would have a significant impact on Tesla.
On the morning of July 1st, Trump posted on social media: “So far, Elon Musk’s (·) government subsidies might be more than any person in history. Without these subsidies, he would likely have to shut down his business and return to South Africa.”
This was on March 14th, inside the White House office building in Washington, D.C., where Trump and Musk were talking (photo from a file). Xinhua News Agency/French New
When asked whether he would consider expelling Musk from the country, Trump responded at the White House, “I don’t know. I need to think about it.”
“We may have the Department of Government Efficiency keeping an eye on Elon (· Musk). Do you know what the Department of Government Efficiency is? It’s like a monster that could turn around and eat up Musk,” Trump said. “He’s not satisfied with many things, but you should know, he might lose much more than just this.”
Musk had been Trump’s close ally, investing over $290 million during last year’s federal election cycle, making significant contributions to Trump’s victory. He had led the Department of Government Efficiency in the new administration, helping Trump significantly reduce federal spending and massively cut federal employees. However, he left his position as head of the Department of Government Efficiency by the end of May.