By VICTORIA CHURCHILL, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER ON CAPITOL HILL
Social media users are seeing right through the grandstanding of Senate Democrats as they pull out every trick in the book to delay the passage of the GOP's 'big, beautiful' budget bill.
President Donald Trump has imposed a deadline of July 4th for the passage of his signature domestic policy legislation, and the bill still currently has not passed the U.S. Senate, or gone back to the House of Representatives for a vote on the Senate's version.
At 11:08 PM Saturday evening, Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for the bill to be read in its entirety, kicking off the hours long marathon reading of the 940 page document.
'Senate Republicans are scrambling to pass a radical bill, released to the public in the dead of night, praying the American people don't realize what's in it,' Schumer (D-N.Y.) professed on the Senate floor Saturday night.
'If Senate Republicans won't tell the American people what's in this bill, then Democrats are going to force this chamber to read it from start to finish,' Schumer added.
Massachusetts Senator and former Democrat Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren posted at just after 2:00 AM Sunday morning that she was on the way to call for a reading of the nearly 1,000 page bill, nearly three hours after the reading had already started.
X user @crza_11 responded to Warren saying 'Why are you on your way there now? Shouldn't you be there the whole time listening to the reading?'
A user with the handle @TMIWITW wrote 'It's absolutely amazing that Trump got you people to FINALLY read bills before you pass them.'
As pointed out by a number of social media users, the latest Democrat approach to legislating is a far cry from from years past, when former House speaker Nancy Pelosi said during the 2010 debate over the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare that 'we have to pass the bill ... so that you can find out what is in it.'
In its present form, the budget bill extends most of the tax cuts Trump signed into law in 2017, including slashing rates on estates and for corporations. Deductions for state and local taxes as well as business owners are included.
The legislation also fulfills a campaign promise to eliminate taxes on tips for the next three years.
It doubles the child tax credit, as well as the standard deduction for tax filers.
To pay for the massive tax cuts, the Senate is choosing to rein in spending programs for low-income Americans. One provision requires most Medicaid recipients with children over the age 15 to work. It also imposes more rules to qualify for health care subsidies.
Still, not all of the members of even the President's own party are on board with passing the bill.
Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky voted no the motion to proceed on the bill Saturday due to the additional projected increases to the national debt.
Paul said Friday that the 'deficit is the biggest threat to our national security, we've got to do something about it.' 'This bill has about $400 -$500 billion worth of new spending,' Paul also noted. Paul continually raised concerns about the $5 trillion dollars in additional debt through the entire Senate negotiation process.
North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis was the second of two Republican senators who voted against the 'motion to proceed' on Trump's budget bill Saturday evening, along with Paul.
In a post made to his social media site Truth Social Sunday morning, President Trump came after Tillis, claiming that he 'hurt the great people of North Carolina' and calling him a 'talker and complainer'
'Thom Tillis has hurt the great people of North Carolina. Even on the catastrophic flooding, nothing was done to help until I took office. Then a Miracle took place! Tillis is a talker and complainer, Not A Doer! He's even worse than Rand 'Fauci' Paul,' Trump wrote just after 10:00 AM Sunday morning.
Tillis has since announced Sunday that he will not be seeking reelection during the 2026 midterms.