Senate GOP Sorts Out Which Poison Pills It Can Swallow To Pass House’s ‘Big Beautiful’ Bill

Senate Republicans began the work this week of deciphering what exactly House Republicans’ have stuffed into President Trump’s massive spending package — and what elements of it they can live with. 

One thing is clear: Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Republican leadership have their work cut out for them. And in a few key cases, senators might soon find themselves caught between what Trump demands of them, and what’s good for their reelection prospects. 

Similar to the competing pain points that surfaced among members of the House Republican conference, several Senate Republicans have gone on the record to object in various ways to either the bill’s extensive gutting of social safety net programs or — on the other end of the spectrum — the extent to which it will add to the deficit, a Republican sin many in the party have built their brands opposing.

At this point, it looks almost inevitable that senators will make changes to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which House Republicans drafted after weeks of intraparty quarrels. That means the House will have to vote on the bill again. Any major shifts could backfire, breaking the delicate balance on which House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) built the bill. 

Thune can only lose three votes from his caucus and still pass the legislation.

Here are four places in which Republicans are likely to have to cut a deal, potentially tweaking just how destructive the final bill is. 

Cuts to Medicaid and SNAP

Several Senate Republicans have been publicly declaring that they are opposed to the ways in which the bill currently cuts social safety net programs, while, in most cases, still suggesting there are some cuts they’d support.

Several Republican senators, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Josh Hawley (R-MO), have already indicated they won’t get behind certain kinds of cuts to Medicaid and other programs, which are widely utilized by their constituents.

“I am not going to vote for Medicaid benefit cuts,” Hawley told reporters in the Senate basement in March. “Work requirements, I’m totally fine with. But 21% of Missourians either get Medicaid or CHIP so I am not going to vote for benefit cuts for people who I think are qualified.”

Sen. Jim Justice (R-WV) has made similar statements, telling reporters on Wednesday that he is ok with freezing the provider taxes House Republicans took up in their bill but not cutting them back.

Meanwhile Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who recently announced a gubernatorial bid in his state, has said he is opposed to the way in which the legislation cuts Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The House bill includes deep cuts to that program, including a cost-sharing plan that would require states to cover a portion of SNAP benefit costs; the benefits are currently completely covered by the federal government.

“Everybody that’s going to be in state government is going to be concerned about it,” Tuberville said, according to Politico. “I don’t know whether we can afford it or not.”

Medicare is now on the table, too

In recent days, some Senate Republicans have also indicated that they are exploring ideas to slash what they claim is “waste, fraud and abuse” in Medicare —- despite President Donald Trump’s previous vows to “love and cherish” the program and promises not to touch it.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) on Thursday said that Republicans are looking at changes to Medicare, telling The Hill there are “a number” of reforms he’d like to see to programs maintained by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

“I think anything that can be — that’s waste, fraud and abuse are open to, obviously, discussions,” Thune also told reporters of Medicare.

Meanwhile Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) took a stronger stance, saying Republicans shouldn’t be afraid of cutting waste from the program.

“Why don’t we go after that? I think we should,” Cramer told NBC.

“Some people are afraid of the topics; I’m not,” he added, noting that they would focus on waste, fraud and abuse.

That phrase — “waste, fraud and abuse” — has, of course, become the go-to terminology for Republicans who want to justify their cuts to largely popular programs, despite the fact that rooting out supposed “waste, fraud and abuse” roughly translates to hidden, hard-for-the-public-to-understand cuts.

This new proposal, too, is already stirring some pushback. “What a terrible idea. We should not be touching Medicare,” Hawley told NBC.

Cuts to the clean energy tax credits

Sens. John Curtis (R-UT), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Tillis and Murkowski have warned leadership about provisions of the bill that would gut Biden-era clean energy tax credits passed in the Inflation Reduction Act.

The House bill’s cuts were largely added to the House bill at the last minute in order to appease House Freedom Caucus members who were threatening to sink the bill on the House floor unless leadership made more cuts. They include plans to repeal residential energy-focused credits and several electric vehicle-related credits — both used by individual taxpayers — as well as almost immediately phasing out the clean electricity production and investment tax credit that aims to boost zero-emission electricity production from industry, utilities and manufacturing.  

“I want to make sure that we are making good on the investments that we have made with those tax credits,” Murkowski told reporters in the Senate basement on Wednesday when asked about the tax credits.

Meanwhile, Tillis — one of the most vulnerable Republicans in 2026 — on Wednesday indicated he wanted to see negotiations around the requirements and duration for the programs in question.

He also specifically called out the foreign entity restrictions House Republicans put in the bill, which experts described to TPM as a “bad faith” and “unworkable” provision that Republicans say will prevent nations like China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from having access to the tax subsidies. Tillis described them as “a big problem.”

“As I understand it, the level of granularity proposed by the House renders the programs inoperative,” Tillis told reporters on his way up to a floor vote.

A call for more spending cuts

While several Senate Republicans are opposing cuts to programs that are crucial for their states, others, on the other end of the spectrum, are calling for more spending cuts than what are included in the House Republican package. (These Republicans have, lately, found a surprising ally in the president’s erstwhile advisor, Elon Musk.)

Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) are loudly asking for deeper cuts, saying they are worried about the impact of the megabill on the deficit.

“I refuse to accept $2 trillion-plus deficits as far as the eye can see as the new normal. We have to address that problem, and unfortunately this bill doesn’t do so,” Johnson, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said Wednesday during an ABC News interview.

Paul has made a career of libertarian budget hawkery, and is objecting, in particular, to a provision of the bill that raises the debt ceiling, something that must happen this summer in order for the U.S. to avoid default. He has previously indicated he does not believe “expanding the debt ceiling more than we’ve ever done it before” is fiscally conservative. 

“This will be the greatest increase in the debt ceiling ever, and the GOP owns this now,” Paul told reporters after the House passed their version of the bill.