‘We Have an Agenda,’ Thune Says of GOP Senators on Budget Bill

“We’re anxious to have the ball and run with it,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Tuesday, referencing the budget reconciliation bill that has passed the House and is now being considered by the upper chamber. 

The South Dakota Republican emphasized that he thought Republicans had a vision for what they would like to see in the potentially landmark legislation.

“We have an agenda that everybody campaigned on; most notably, the president of the United States,” Thune said. 

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who chairs the Senate Republican Policy Committee, concurred, stressing the importance of the bill to small businesses.

West Virginia small businesses “are very anxious for the depreciation and the expensing, so that they can grow their businesses and hire more people,” Capito explained. 

Thune also addressed Elon Musk’s recent criticism of the House reconciliation bill as fiscally irresponsible, saying that the former Department of Government Efficiency chief was accepting assumptions that are predicated upon a static budget-scoring assessment. 

Thune characterized the dispute between one of the president’s top donors and congressional Republicans as a “difference of opinion.” 

Thune laid out his vision for the Senate version of the bill that would fulfill Republican campaign promises, including modernizing the military, securing the border, and extending President Donald Trump’s 2017 first-term tax cuts. 

The Senate majority leader also appeared optimistic about the chances of more reform of federal spending in the Senate version of the budget reconciliation bill as well. 

“We think there are areas [of the] federal government—areas of waste, fraud, and abuse—that we can further identify that would make that a more robust package,” Thune said. 

One key vote that Thune will have to court for the bill is that of Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who has criticized Republicans’ desire to cut Medicaid benefits.

“[I]gnore calls to cut Medicaid,” the Missouri senator argued in an opinion column May 12 in The New York Times. More than 70 million Americans are on the program, including more than 1 million of Hawley’s Missouri constituents. Trump talked with Hawley on Monday to go over his concerns about the bill. 

“Just had a great talk with President Trump about the Big, Beautiful Bill. He said again, NO MEDICAID BENEFIT CUTS,” the Missouri senator wrote in an X post. 

Another swing vote the majority leader likely needs is that of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who told CNBC today that he would oppose raising the debt ceiling. The House reconciliation bill has been estimated to add about $3.1 trillion to the national debt (including interest) over 10 years. If the temporary provisions of the bill were extended without cuts that number balloons to $5.1 trillion.

The president appears ready to lend his voice and significant political clout to get the budget bill across the finish line. Trump criticized the Kentucky senator on Tuesday, writing a Truth Social post that said, “Rand votes NO on everything, but never has any practical or constructive ideas. His ideas are actually crazy (losers!). The people of Kentucky can’t stand him. This is a BIG GROWTH BILL!”