Summary

Companies CBO sees $2.4 trillion debt impact in House-passed bill

Costs could rise to $5 trillion including interest if made permanent, CFRB says

Elon Musk criticizes bill, supports Republican deficit hawks

Senate Republicans divided on House-passed bill

WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) – Hardline conservative Republicans in the U.S. Senate and billionaire Elon Musk showed no sign of softening opposition to President Donald Trump’s tax-cut and spending bill on Wednesday, as they pushed for deeper reductions in government outlays.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday estimated the bill — which would extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and step up spending for the military and border security — will add about $2.4 trillion to the $36.2 trillion U.S. debt pile.

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Another nonpartisan forecaster, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said on Wednesday that when taking interest payments into account the bill’s cost could rise to $3 trillion over a decade or to $5 trillion if temporary tax cuts were made permanent.

Musk, the world’s richest person who for several months led the Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting effort, stepped up his attacks on the measure, joining with Senate Republican deficit hawks who said the version passed by the House of Representatives last month did not sufficiently cut spending.

“A new spending bill should be drafted that doesn’t massively grow the deficit,” Musk, the largest Republican donor in the 2024 election cycle, said on his X social media platform. “America is in the fast lane to debt slavery.”

Top congressional Republicans rejected his criticism and one White House official on Wednesday called the Tesla CEO’s moves “infuriating.”

Another White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, on Wednesday said Musk’s complaints represented “one disagreement” in an otherwise harmonious relationship, adding that Trump was committed to getting the bill passed despite Musk’s stance.

Asked about Musk’s message after a White House meeting with Trump, Senate Majority Leader John Thune promised Congress would get the legislation over the finish line.

“We’re a long ways down this track,” Thune said. “The wheels are in motion on this. As I said before, failure is not an option. We will get this done, one way or the other.”

Other Senate Republicans downplayed Musk’s influence.

“I don’t think very many senators are that interested in what Elon has to say. It’s amusing. But we’re serious policymakers. We have to govern, and so we have to deal with reality,” Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota told reporters.

Musk joined Trump’s team with brash promises of cutting $2 trillion in spending from the federal budget, but left last week having accomplished a small fraction of that.

The House-passed bill would reduce the federal government’s revenues by $3.67 trillion over a decade, the CBO forecasted, while reducing spending by $1.25 trillion.

The measure would also lift the federal government’s debt ceiling, a step that lawmakers must take some time this summer or risk a devastating default.

Item 1 of 2 U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) speak to members of the media, on the day of a closed House Republican Conference meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno [1/2] U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) speak to members of the media, on the day of a closed House Republican Conference meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

NARROW SENATE PATH

With Republicans holding a narrow 53-47 Senate majority, just four “no” votes are enough to scupper any bill that Democrats unite in opposing.

The measure named the “big, beautiful bill” faces opposition both from deficit hawks and a handful of rural-state Republicans worried about the scale of cuts to the Medicaid health insurance program for low-income Americans.

“We’re at $2 trillion in deficits,” said Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida. “We’re not going to get interest rates down or inflation under control if we don’t balance the budget.”

Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin criticized the Trump-backed bill as failing to reverse the trajectory of budget deficits and debt.

“The CBO score is a distraction,” Johnson said to reporters. “You’re arguing over twigs and leaves, when you’re ignoring the forest that’s on fire.”

‘BAD TO WORSE’

The number of people in the United States without health insurance would increase by 10.9 million by 2034 due to policy changes in the House bill, the CBO said. Of that number, an estimated 1.4 million people would be undocumented immigrants who would no longer be covered in programs funded by the states.

“This bill has gone from bad to worse,” said Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, referring to the healthcare cuts.

The CBO update does not include a forecast on the potential macroeconomic effects of the legislation, which will be forthcoming. Republicans argue that extending existing tax cuts and adding new breaks, which are included in the House bill, would further stimulate the economy.

They made similar arguments in 2017 that tax cuts would pay for themselves by stimulating economic growth, but the CBO estimates the changes increased the federal deficit by just under $1.9 trillion over a decade, even when including positive economic effects.

The 1,100-page bill would extend corporate and individual tax cuts passed in 2017 during Trump’s first term in office, cancel many green-energy incentives passed by Democratic former President Joe Biden and tighten eligibility for health and food programs for the poor.

It also would fund Trump’s crackdown on immigration, adding tens of thousands of border guards and creating the capacity to deport up to 1 million people each year. Regulations on firearm silencers would be loosened.

Democrats blast the bill as disproportionately benefiting the wealthy while cutting benefits for working Americans. The measure is now awaiting action in the Senate.

The Republican-controlled Congress so far has not rejected any of Trump’s legislative requests.

Reporting by Richard Cowan, Bo Erickson, David Morgan and Nandita Bose; Editing by Scott Malone, Alistair Bell and Deepa Babington

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Feds Urged To Investigate Pizzas Sent To Judges Using Name Of Judge’s Murdered Son

The Justice Department is being urged to investigate a series of suspicious pizza deliveries to federal judges’ homes — some of which were ordered using the name of a judge’s son who was fatally shot by a fake deliveryman.

Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) urged U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday to investigate the orders that he said aim to elicit fear by showing the recipients that the sender knows where they live.

“The targeted individuals reportedly include Supreme Court justices, judges handling legal cases involving the Trump Administration, and the children of judges,” said Durbin in a letter. “Some of these deliveries were made using the name of Judge Esther Salas’s son, Daniel Anderl, who was murdered at the family’s home by a former litigant who posed as a deliveryman.”

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), seen last month, has called for a federal investigation into the pizza deliveries. Anadolu via Getty Images

Salas, whose 20-year-old son and husband were both shot at her front door in 2020, spoke out against the mysterious deliveries last month ― some of which she said she has received ― and the twisted use of her son’s name to harm others.

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“My murdered son’s name is now being attached, weaponized, is being used as a weapon against these judicial officers,” she told NJ.com.

“It says, ‘I know where you live. I know where your kids live.’ And, ‘Do you want to end up like Judge Salas? Do you want to end up like her son?’ These are unprecedented attacks on judicial officers,” she said.

Federal judges have increasingly reported death threats, swatting calls and acts of intimidation against themselves and their families while overseeing high-profile cases that challenge Trump administration policies.

President Donald Trump has meanwhile encouraged the backlash against them, with him publicly calling one judge who ruled against him a “Radical Left Lunatic, a troublemaker and agitator” who he said should be impeached.

On Wednesday, Trump accused the court system of inappropriately blocking him from doing “the job I was Elected to do” when it comes to his mass deportation efforts, which a second federal judge on Tuesday ruled against.

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“Activist judges must let the Trump Administration deport murderers, and other criminals who have come into our Country illegally, WITHOUT DELAY!!!” he wrote on his Truth Social account.

Durbin asked that the DOJ and FBI respond to his investigation request, as well as questions about the deliveries, by May 20.

Representatives with the DOJ did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment Wednesday. The FBI referred HuffPost to the U.S. Marshals Service, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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