The U.S. Senate passes the "Big and Beautiful" tax and spending bill by a narrow margin

The U.S. Senate passed the "Big and Beautiful" tax and spending bill of President Trump by an extremely narrow margin and submitted it to the House of Representatives. Both chambers must reach an agreement on the final version of the bill before it can be signed into law by Trump.

According to Reuters, the U.S. Senate passed the bill on Tuesday (July 1) with a vote of 51 to 50, advancing a plan that includes tax cuts, reductions in social safety net programs, increased spending on military and immigration enforcement, and adding $3.3 trillion (about 4.2 trillion new dollars) to the national debt over the next 10 years.

The bill includes extending the corporate and personal tax cuts enacted by Trump during his first term in 2017, allowing tips and overtime income to be tax-free, cutting funding for Medicare and nutrition assistance programs, and authorizing billions of dollars in funding for combating illegal immigration and defense. The Senate-passed bill also stipulates that electric vehicle tax credits will no longer be available from September 30 this year, and only wind and solar projects that start production before the end of 2027 will be eligible for tax credits.

This bill exposed divisions within the Republican Party over the rapidly growing $36.2 trillion U.S. debt. The Senate version of the bill would raise the federal government's self-imposed debt ceiling by $5 trillion, higher than the amount in the previous House version. Congress must raise this ceiling in the coming months, or else face a catastrophic default risk. Trump has demanded that the Big and Beautiful bill be signed into law before the Independence Day holiday on July 4, and House Speaker Johnson said his goal is to pass the bill before that deadline. The House will debate and vote on the Senate version of the bill on Wednesday (July 2), and some Republican representatives have expressed opposition to certain provisions in the Senate version. According to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office, the House and Senate versions of the bill would increase the U.S. deficit by $2.8 trillion and nearly $3.3 trillion, respectively, from 2025 to 2034. In addition, the Senate version of the bill's modifications to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act would lead to nearly 12 million more Americans being uninsured by 2034.

Some Democratic senators accused the Senate version of the bill of being "a transfer from the poor to the rich." Senator Sanders of Vermont said the bill was "a gift to the billionaire class." Senator Peters of Michigan said the bill was "reckless and irresponsible."

U.S. media reports indicate that concerns about the sustainability of American finances are pushing the dollar-euro exchange rate to its lowest level since September 2021. The dollar index, which measures the value of the dollar against six major currencies, fell below 96.50 on the morning of June 1, reaching its lowest level since late February 2022.

Ana Sisirak, a professor at Duke University in the United States, said: "Fiscal deficits, the depreciation of the dollar, uncertainty about the successor to the Federal Reserve chairman, and (Trump)'s questioning of the independence of the Federal Reserve all have a negative impact on the dollar's status as a safe haven."

The Republican-majority U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed the Big and Beautiful bill by one vote on May 22. Since the Senate made significant changes to the bill, the Senate version needs to be passed again by the House before it can be submitted to Trump for signing into law.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1836500289467657/

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