Republicans moving ahead with Trump's 'big' bill of tax breaks and spending cuts amid tariff uproar

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Republicans moving ahead with Trump's 'big' bill of tax breaks and spending cuts amid tariff uproar

2025-04-04 09:05 Last Updated At：09:11

WASHINGTON (AP) — After a long wait, the Senate is launching action on President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill” of tax breaks and spending cuts at a risky moment for the U.S. and global economy.

More than a month after House Republicans surprised Washington by advancing their framework for Trump's $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and $2 trillion in spending cuts, Senate Republicans voted Thursday to start working on their version. The largely party-line vote, 52-48, sets the stage for a potential Senate all-nighter Friday spilling into the weekend.

But work on the multitrillion-dollar package is coming as markets at home and abroad are on edge in the aftermath Trump's vast tariffs scheme, complicating an already difficult political and procedural undertaking on what Republicans hope will become their signature domestic policy package.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., opened the chamber Thursday saying they expected to be ready to begin.

Trump says he's on board with the plan and Republicans, in control of Congress, are eager to show the party is making progress toward delivering on their campaign promises. By nightfall, as voting began, one Republican, the libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted against, as did all Democrats.

Democrats, as the minority party, don't have the votes to stop the GOP plan. But they intend to use the procedural tools available to prolong the process. Democrats argue that Republicans are focusing on tax breaks for the wealthy at the expense of the programs and services millions of Americans rely on for help with health care, child care, school lunches and other everyday needs.

“They’re mean, they’re nasty, they’re uncaring," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said about the Republicans. “We, tonight and tomorrow, are going to show just who they are."

Senate Democrats started consuming up to 25 hours of their available debate time, holding the floor into the night and railing against potential GOP cuts to Medicaid, veterans programs, DOGE cuts and the impact of Trump's tariffs.

Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the Budget committee, repeated a slogan he has been sharing: “Families lose and billionaires win.”

“That," he said, “is the Republican plan.”

Fundamental to the Senate package is making sure Trump’s first-term tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of the year, are continued and made a permanent fixture of the tax code. The senators also will consider adding Trump's proposed tax cuts on tipped wages, Social Security income and others.

The Senate package also would bolster border security funds by some $175 billion to carry out Trump’s mass deportation campaign, which is running short of cash, and it would add national security funds for the Pentagon — all priorities the Senate GOP tucked into an earlier version that was panned by House Republicans.

Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the party whip, said that without action tax cuts would expire, becoming a $4 trillion tax hike on Americans. “Republicans are focused on getting America back on track,” he said.

What's unclear is how it will all be paid for, since Republican deficit hawks typically require spending offsets to help defray the lost tax revenue and avoid piling onto the nation's $36 trillion debt load.

While House Republicans approved their package with $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and up to $2 trillion in spending cuts, the Senate Republicans are taking a different tack.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham is making the case that since the existing Trump tax breaks are the current policy, they are not considered new, and do not need to be offset with reductions in spending — an approach Democrats compare to “going nuclear” with the normal rules, particularly if the strategy is put to the test with an unfavorable ruling before the Senate parliamentarian.

Instead, Senate Republicans are considering offsets mostly for any new Trump tax breaks. Raising alarms from the most conservative budget hawks, the senators have set a floor of about $4 billion in budget reductions to health and other programs — a fraction of the package's expected $4 trillion-plus price tag for tax breaks.

GOP leaders are assuring the deficit hawks within their own ranks that the legislation says the cuts can rise to as much as $2 trillion.

After an expected Friday night vote-a-rama, with dozens of amendments being offered to the package, the senators are planning to stay into Saturday if needed to take a final vote to approve it, sending it to the House for action.

The House and Senate will ultimately need to merge their frameworks into a final product, expected in May, but House Speaker Mike Johnson's intention to have it all wrapped up by Memorial Day could prove optimistic.

The political environment is uncertain, and the public's appetite for steep budget cuts is being tested in real time, with Trump's Department of Government Efficiency headed by billionaire Elon Musk blazing through federal offices, firing thousands of workers and shuttering long-running government mainstays — from scientific research projects on diseases to educational services for schoolchildren to offices that help with Social Security, tax filing and the weather.

At the same time, the staunchest fiscal conservatives in both the House and Senate, many aligned with the Freedom Caucus, are pushing for even more cuts.

Trump told senators publicly and privately this week he would have their backs, particularly when it comes to standing up for the spending reductions. At a White House announcing the tariffs Wednesday, Trump said the Senate plan had his “complete and total support.”

The president's steep tariffs threw the global economy into a tailspin Thursday, with stocks down around the world, the U.S. markets leading the way.

Associated Press writers Leah Askarinam and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

Informal ties with US philanthropists like Howard Buffett firm despite shaky US–Ukraine relations

2025-04-08 07:22 Last Updated At：07:31

BOBRYK, Ukraine (AP) — As uncertainty in U.S.–Ukraine relations grows, informal ties with some U.S. philanthropists built over three years of war with Russia are holding firm.

One such benefactor is Howard G. Buffett, a Republican and son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett. He's making his 18th visit to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The trip comes as the new U.S. administration led by President Donald Trump is trying to broker a temporary ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. But the fighting has continued, and it remains unclear whether the United States will maintain its support for Ukraine in repelling Russia’s invasion.

“It doesn’t change anything we do. We’re on track,” Buffett told The Associated Press, adding that his foundation will surpass $1 billion in aid to Ukraine this year. He called the prospect of a peace deal “impossible.”

“Putin doesn’t want it, and he won’t respect it,” he said. “There’s no easy way to end the war. So, we’ll stick with it as long as we need to.”

The AP caught up with Buffett aboard a train with Ukraine’s Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko on Saturday. Their shared commitment to humanitarian demining brought them together in 2023, and they’ve remained in close contact since then. Svyrydenko calls him “one of the greatest friends of Ukraine.”

Buffett is among a number of Americans across the U.S. political spectrum who support Ukraine’s war effort, either through financial aid or volunteer military service, who say the U.S. hasn’t done enough to help Ukraine defeat Russia over the past few years.

On this trip, Buffett and Svyrydenko traveled to the country’s northern Sumy region, where the situation has significantly worsened following Ukrainian forces’ loss of ground in Russia’s Kursk region.

They visited the villages of Popivka and Bobryk, which — like much of the region — lie in a high-risk zone for land mines. Parts of the area were occupied by Russian forces in 2022 and are now considered potentially contaminated. They also stopped at a local school that had been relocated to a basement, where children now study during hours-long air raid alerts.

Buffett’s foundation, which focuses on humanitarian needs like agriculture, infrastructure and mine clearance, has contributed about $800 million to Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion, including $175 million in humanitarian demining. Svyrydenko’s ministry is responsible for Ukraine’s humanitarian demining infrastructure.

“He understands very well that if a country that can feed 400 million people cannot clear its fields and loses at least $12 billion of GDP every year due to mined land, it’s a major challenge,” Svyrydenko said of Buffett.

According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy, the country’s agricultural sector has lost 20.5% of its farmland since the invasion — due to land mines, occupation and ongoing fighting.

Roughly 139,000 square kilometers (53,670 square miles) of Ukrainian land — about the size of the state of New York — are potentially mined. Two-thirds of that territory consists of fertile farmland where generations of Ukrainians have grown wheat.

Since the beginning of the war, 335 people have been killed and 823 wounded in mine-related incidents. An estimated 6.1 million people live in areas considered at risk of landmine contamination.

Despite rocky relations and growing uncertainty in the United States, Buffett said he believes many U.S. lawmakers still support the principles of freedom and democracy and won’t abandon Ukraine as it fights for its sovereignty.

“At the end of the day, I think the U.S. will do the right thing, but it may be a painful process and there may be a lot more Ukrainians that die,” he said.

The Buffett Foundation funded several bipartisan U.S. congressional delegations to Ukraine in 2023 and plans to bring another group in May.

Buffett, whose foundation has worked in conflict zones for over two decades, said witnessing the conditions firsthand is critical to understanding the war’s scale. He recalled one drive in particular — from Kharkiv to Borova, near the front line —where he passed through village after village flattened by Russian attacks.

He added that atrocities committed in towns like Bucha, Borodyanka and Irpin, where Russian forces were accused of torturing, raping and executing civilians, are often forgotten outside Ukraine.

“That’s why showing up matters. Hearing it from the people living it is the only way to truly understand.”