President Donald Trump's July 4 deadline for signing his signature legislation appears to be in jeopardy as fiscal hawks in the Senate demand more spending cuts.
Conservatives led by Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, are sounding determined to address the nation's $2.2 trillion annual deficit, The Hill reported Friday.
Johnson and the others are threatening to hold up the "one, big, beautiful bill" unless there are deeper cuts to federal Medicaid spending and a faster rollback of renewable energy tax credits enacted under former President Joe Biden, the outlet said.
Although Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has said he plans to bring the legislation to the Senate floor by mid-next week, that seems to be a challenge.
"There's no way I vote for this thing next week," Johnson told reporters, The Hill reported.
"I don't want to go the [former House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi route, 'You got to pass this bill to know what's in it.'"
Scott has offered suggestions about how to significantly reduce the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage in states that expanded the program under Obamacare. Lee is working on a larger phaseout of renewable energy subsidies enacted in Biden's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
"Mike is handling the IRA provisions of this, Rick Scott is handling the Medicaid," Johnson said. "You need to satisfy those two, too. All three of us have to be yes or none of us are yes."
The fiscal hawks are not forming the only obstacle for Thune and Senate leadership.
Trump wants to return $9.4 billion in federal spending to Congress that lawmakers already have approved.
But some Republican senators don't want to cut funds for certain programs, including $1.1 billion to public broadcasting and $900 million in foreign aid for global health, the Washington Examiner reported Friday.
Those cuts were in the version of the bill passed by the House.
"We'll all make up our own minds," Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said recently. "There's a reason why these things are in the law in the first place. It's because we believe that a lot of this stuff is good and it's good public policy, so it's OK for them to suggest that they have a different point of view."
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.