Senators consider changes to debt limit and Medicaid in Trump's big bill

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President Donald Trump wants his “big, beautiful” bill of tax breaks and spending cuts on his desk to be signed into law by the Fourth of July, and he's pushing the slow-rolling Senate to make it happen sooner rather than later.

Transcript

00:00You know, I think it's one of the most important debates of our time, and this is a debate

00:12over whether or not a country can have $36 trillion in debt, whether we can have interest

00:17payments over a trillion dollars.

00:18I think it's an important debate to have.

00:21I don't make it personal at all.

00:22I like the president, supported the president.

00:24In fact, I'm for the tax cuts.

00:26I am for a lot of the bill.

00:29But I can't, in good conscience, give up every principle that I stand for and every

00:33principle that I was elected upon, and that's that we can't accumulate more debt.

00:38$2 trillion in debt this year is too much.

00:40If you're going to borrow $5 trillion, it means they're going to get to that limit within the

00:44next year or two.

00:45They're planning on spending $5 trillion they don't have, and I'm just not for that.

00:49But there is a way around all of this.

00:51They could get my vote, and I could vote for the package if they take out the debt ceiling

00:56and vote on that separately.

00:57Senator, he says that it's the largest increase in the debt ceiling ever, and they will say,

01:03well, it doesn't spend any money.

01:04It's not really adding to the debt.

01:06They will get to their $5 trillion limit.

01:09The question is sooner or later.

01:10But we're giving them the ability to borrow $5 trillion more.

01:13I'm not for borrowing $5 trillion more.

01:15I'm for borrowing a smaller amount over a shorter period of time.

01:19They have promised they're going to be better.

01:21At some point in time, they're going to change their ways, and they're going to begin lessening

01:25spending.

01:26My biggest concern is the permanence of a lot of the tax policy pieces to say, how do we

01:31actually look at things expiring, and what's the right date that they should expire, or

01:36should they expire at all?

01:37It's a lot better for individuals and small businesses when they're planning to be able

01:41to know for capital expenses and such that that's not going to expire in the future.

01:45So if they've got a capital expense, they've got a plan for six years from now, they can

01:48actually plan for that and not wonder what the tax policy will be when they get there.

01:52I think that's the biggest piece that we've got to be able to resolve.

01:54Medicaid.

01:55I can't really support cutting Medicaid, and there's millions, millions of Americans

01:59that depend on that.

02:01And that's one of the reasons why I can't vote for the big, beautiful bill.

02:06So what's fighting?

02:08What's fighting?

02:09I mean, voting no on that and just making interviews now and claiming that I think this

02:13is the wrong thing to do.

02:15There still may be things that the Senate needs to tweak.

02:19And it could include the way that Medicaid is manipulated by the states to get them more

02:26money than was originally designed under the Medicaid program.

02:31So I think the focus in the Senate is going to be whether we can adequately address our concerns

02:36about Medicaid.

02:38If we can, I think we can get the magic 50.

02:42And what do you make?

02:43We have to do our work in the Senate.

02:47But something always has to be in the back of everybody's minds.

02:51And that is that this bill only passed the House by one vote.

02:56And whatever changes we make, it's got to go back there for approval.

03:00Senators, July 4th is still a reasonable timetable to get this to the President's desk.

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