Republicans in the US Senate barely managed to pass a package of major tax breaks and spending cuts known as the "big, beautiful bill" today, after major changes and delays in the procedure. Since its opponents were as many as its supporters, the "golden vote" that prevailed was cast by US Vice President J.D. Vance.
The adoption of the law was preceded by a turbulent night in which opposition Democrats resorted to various methods of procedural slowdown, and three senators from the ruling Republican Party refused to vote for the law, so the result of the vote was 50:50, American media reported.
After Vance's "golden vote", the bill passed with the bare minimum possible majority, and now returns for reconsideration to the US House of Representatives, where Republicans have an even smaller majority than in the Senate.
With great difficulty, they "pushed" it through the lower house of Congress the previous time as well.
The law is a key part of Republican US President Donald Trump's reformist agenda.
As the AP writes, when the bill, after being passed in the House of Representatives, reached the upper house, the Senate, it was constantly teetering on the edge of not being passed.
Numerous provisions of the law have come under fire from the Senate "parliamentarian," a nonpartisan body that oversees whether the provisions of a bill are in accordance with Senate budget rules.
The proposal underwent various changes.
Nevertheless, it remained unacceptable to three Republican senators - Tom Tilles of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky. They joined their Democratic colleagues, who number 47 in the Senate.
The bill would not have passed if Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who also opposed it and who introduced amendments to it, had not voted for it at the last minute.
"This big but not so pretty law has passed," libertarian Rand Paul said after the vote.
A re-vote is expected in the House of Representatives, as the Senate amended the bill, and the key problem for Republicans, in addition to opposition from the far right wing of the party, remains the highly unpopular cuts to the Medicaid healthcare program.
Moderate Republicans fear a backlash from voters over the Medicaid cuts, while far-right conservatives are seeking even deeper cuts and savings than those provided for by law.
Donald Trump has set July 4th, the main national holiday in the US, as the deadline for passing his "nice big law."
Senate Democratic Minority Leader, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, said that "Republicans are falling apart because they know how unpopular this bill is."
The law was once again opposed by Donald Trump's longtime ally, millionaire Elon Musk, who accused Republicans of increasing the borrowing limit to $5 trillion instead of going into savings. He called the law a "pig party."
This bill recently sparked heated arguments between Trump and Musk. The conflict has subsided, but has flared up again ahead of its passage.
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