Senate Republicans face a major problem with President Donald Trump's megabill: "a mathematical double-whammy," according to a new report.
The Senate version of Trump's megabill is roughly $400 billion more expensive than the version that the House of Representatives passed. That could force Senators to include deeper cuts to programs like Medicaid, which some moderate members of the GOP see as a political liability.
“They got a problem,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) told Politico. “The conservatives have got a real problem if it’s not doing what we thought we had in the House.”
The higher cost of the Senate version could threaten some priorities for Senate leadership. For instance, Sen. John Thune (R-SD) has said he wants to make business tax cuts in the megabill permanent. It also could force Republicans to give up on their efforts to increase state-and-local-tax deductions, which is a deal the GOP brokered in the House before sending the bill to the Upper Chamber.
Republicans are hitting the math wall at a time when Trump and Republican leaders are trying to push the bill across the finish line.
Trump has called on Republicans to skip their Fourth of July break to ensure the bill passes. Thune has told his colleagues that they will endure a "vote-a-rama" to get the bill passed.
“I feel pretty confident that come the end of the week, the sense of urgency around this that [Trump has] conveyed to a lot of our members is going to be the compelling force that gets on his desk," Thune told Axios on Tuesday.
