Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stressed Friday that “perfect cannot be the enemy of the good” while attempting to pass President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” filled with his legislative priorities.
“The perfect cannot be the enemy of the good, and it’s legislative sausage making, which is new for me,” Scott said at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority event in Washington, D.C.
He said Republicans hailing from the Democratic states were “going to get something” and that “the Senate’s going to get something,” adding that “getting this passed is the single most important economic thing we’re going to do this year.”
Bessent is scheduled to attend the Senate Republican luncheon later on Friday, two sources confirmed to The Hill, and Bessent met with blue-state Republicans over the state-and-local tax (SALT) deduction cap included in the bill last night.
Republicans were dealt a major blow on Thursday when Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough said that one of Republicans’ Medicaid provisions on provider state taxes violated the Byrd Rule. That tax provision was supposed to be a major source of revenue for the legislation.
Another thorn in Republicans’ efforts to pass the legislation has been blue-state House Republicans, who have urged for a higher SALT deduction cap. The House bill included a $40,000 SALT cap though the Senate’s version initially included a $10,000 deduction cap.
Sources familiar with negotiations around SALT told The Hill the White House and SALT Republicans are closing in on a deal but will need buy-in first from Senate Republicans.
Despite the swirling uncertainty over the legislation, Bessent projected confidence at the Faith & Freedom Coalition event, “we’re going to get the one big, beautiful bill to the president’s desk and signed on July 4.”
