Now that the House has sent the Senate its version of President Donald Trump's "one big, beautiful bill," Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., told Newsmax Thursday that the upper chamber will work to deepen the spending cuts and will take a "close look" at the state and local tax, or SALT, deduction cap.
"That's why the bill is over here," Marshall said on "The Chris Salcedo Show," regarding increasing the spending cuts. "I want to just emphasize, though, what the bill will do as is.
"It's going to prevent the largest tax increase in history. It's going to kick illegal aliens off Medicaid. It's going to defund Planned Parenthood. Those are just three simple things that we're doing.
"It looks like the House has probably cut about $1.6 trillion in spending. We want to get that up to well over $2 trillion."
"So I think that's really the No. 1 issue over here is, How much more money can we cut? And then we would like to make all the Trump tax cuts permanent. We think that's what's going to grow the economy and, over a 10-year window, decrease that deficit by some $8 trillion."
Earlier Thursday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told colleagues on the Senate floor that "we are very nearly there" in terms of negotiating consensus on the massive tax relief and spending package known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act."
In the House version of the legislation, which passed by just one vote, the SALT deduction was increased to $40,000. Asked about making changes to the House-negotiated SALT provision, Marshall said senators will "have to take a very close look at it."
"I want to translate that to what it would really cost Americans," Marshall said. "Over the next 10 years, that will cost Americans $350 billion — so essentially red states like Kansas bailing out blue states like New York and California to the tune of $350 billion.
"Now, somehow, we got to get this across the House as well. There's no senators over here from a SALT state, a high property tax type of state. So for us, we would just as soon keep it the same."
"Somehow, we'd like to lower it; but still, we need to make sure when it gets back to the House that it passes. Remember, they got just a very narrow window over there," he said, referring to Republican members.
"Both sides are negotiating through the press right now. Hopefully, we can thread that needle. And that's why we need President Trump to show his leadership and help us find a spot we can get it back through the House as well."
Some House members cautioned that if the Senate touches the SALT provision, they will vote "no" on the final version of the bill.
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., posted on X Wednesday: "If the Senate changes the negotiated number of $40,000 — it will derail final passage of the bill."
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