‘Big, beautiful’ battle lines

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The Senate returned Monday to begin hashing out details of President Trump‘s “Big Beautiful Bill,” with Senate Republicans debating among themselves over potential changes to the sprawling legislation that the House passed last month.

Senate panels will spend this week working through key components of the bill — with plenty of detractors and interest groups offering their input along the way

• First things first: Senate Republicans argue it’s up to Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to determine whether extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts should be scored as adding to the deficit — not the independent Senate parliamentarian, who plays a key role in budget bills.

• Republicans have few votes to spare: With a 53-seat majority, Republicans will need to corral nearly every member to get the bill over the finish line and to Trump’s desk by their July 4 goal. And with several fiscal hawks tearing into specific provisions, the deficit question will be a key issue to watch. 

• State of play: While fiscal hawks push for deeper cuts and raise alarm over the bill’s impact on the deficit, other GOP senators have voiced concerns over the bill’s Medicaid reforms and phaseout of clean energy incentives.

STILL SALT-Y

The mammoth bill now in the upper chamber is also spurring debate over whether blue states are subsidizing red states, The Hill’s Tobias Burns reports.

At issue is the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, a key topic for voters in higher-tax states whom several House Republicans running for reelection are hoping to win over.

The House version of the Trump bill was amended last month to boost the deduction to $40,000 following a successful pressure campaign from blue-state Republicans.

Burns notes: “Democrats and blue-state Republicans defend the SALT deduction and advocate for a higher cap because their states often pay more in taxes than they get back in services.”

💡Perspectives:

• The New York Times: Why Politics Feels So Cruel Right Now 

• The Hill: Medicaid cuts will harm rural Republican communities most

• The Los Angeles Times: In an era that celebrates cruelty, embrace subversive kindness

• The Wall Street Journal: Wall Street Stages a Weird Tax Bill Freakout

Read more: 

• The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to intervene and allow mass layoffs across federal government.

• Gulf policymakers said during an event Monday that they are bracing for what’s expected to be an active hurricane season

.• Major auto repair chain to close 145 stores nationwide.

CATCH UP QUICK

• A man accused of attacking Boulder, Colo., demonstrators who were calling for the return of Israeli hostages in Gaza has been charged with a federal hate crime.

  The Supreme Court could soon consider the legal limits of owning AR-15 rifles under the Second Amendment, based on the breadcrumbs Justice Brett Kavanaugh left Monday. Tech billionaire Elon Musk assured his supporters he is “NOT taking drugs” after a New York Times article included details about the former administration adviser’s alleged use of Ketamine and other drugs.

NEWS TODAY

Ukraine pulls off major attack deep inside Russia

The Ukrainian military carried out a major surprise bombing of Russian military bases over the weekend, hitting targets far inside Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the sneak attack “absolutely brilliant.”

 “A result achieved solely by Ukraine. One year, six months, and nine days from the start of planning to effective execution. Our most long-range operation,” he wrote on the social platform X on Sunday. 

President Trump, who has shown wavering support for Ukraine in the three-year war, wasn’t given a heads up on the ambush.  

How it happened: A military official told The Associated Press that the drones hit 41 planes Sunday at military airfields. The complex planning involved dozens of drones hidden inside trucks. Read more here.

💡Perspectives:

• The Hill: A ‘Return of the Jedi’ moment in Ukraine

• The Wall Street Journal: Ukraine Still Isn’t Defeated

• The New York Post: Ukraine’s surprise strike deep in Russia — an excellent way to push Putin to talk peace.

ADMINISTRATION

Five people — including Michael Cohen, a former attorney to President Trump, and former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) — penned an opinion piece in The Hill on Monday urging Trump to reconsider their pardons after they were denied under former President Biden.

The Hill’s Brett Samuels breaks down what it means here.

ON TAP

The House returns from summer break at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, following the Senate’s Monday return.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon is scheduled to testify at a House Appropriations hearing at 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

IN OTHER NEWS

US, China trade barbs over trade truce

The temporary truce in President Trump‘s escalating trade war with Beijing showed signs of unraveling this weekend, as Chinese officials accused the U.S. of reneging on the terms of the deal and Trump dug into his position that China breached their agreement first.

“The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post late Friday. China later accused the Trump administration of “multiple discriminatory restrictive measures against China” since the president’s return to the White House in January.

REWIND: Under the agreement the Trump administration hashed out with China, the U.S. lowered its tariff rate on Chinese imports from 145 percent to 30 percent. Beijing then lowered its tax rate on U.S. goods from 125 percent to 10 percent.

Beijing also agreed to lift nontariff retaliatory measures taken against the U.S. since April.

China called the Trump administration’s claims it had broken the terms of the trade truce “groundless” on Monday.

💡Perspectives:

• The New York Times: The U.S. Deported This Chinese Scientist, in a Decision That Changed World History.

• The Wall Street Journal: To Counter Beijing, Try a ‘Many Chinas’ Policy.

• The Washington Post: Houston, JD Vance has a problem

Read more: 

• The Chinese student crackdown years in the making (Politico)

• Chinese Students Are Frustrated With U.S. Visa Bans: ‘What Now?’ (New York Times)

• Harvard Has Trained So Many Chinese Communist Officials, They Call It Their ‘Party School’ (Wall Street Journal)

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