Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon talks Trump’s budget bill : NPR

The Senate is now considering President Trump’s “big, beautiful” multi-trillion dollar budget bill, which passed the House last month by a single vote.

Senate Republicans can get it over the finish line — if they stick together.

But the bill may face significant changes as a growing number of GOP senators have signaled they fear the bill costs too much and that cuts to Medicare will harm Americans.

Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, told Morning Edition some of his Republican colleagues are uncomfortable with what’s in the bill. He added that he anticipates changes due to Senate rules governing budget reconciliation, the process Republicans are using to pass Trump’s bill.

Merkley spoke with NPR’s Steve Inskeep about his own concerns about the bill, and some of the changes he hopes to see.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Interview highlights

Steve Inskeep: Do you see any chance for your party to shape or influence some of the parts of this bill you don’t like?

Jeff Merkley: Well, they certainly do have an opportunity because the rules in the Senate do not allow many of the provisions that are in the House bill. And many of our Senate colleagues across the aisle and many of our Republican colleagues are uncomfortable with some of the harm that this bill will do to ordinary American families.

Inskeep: Such as what?

Merkley: Well, millions of children will go hungry in order to fund tax breaks for billionaires. And some 14 million Americans will lose health care coverage to fund tax breaks for billionaires. And so, in short, families lose and billionaires win, which is the opposite of what President Trump campaigned on.

Inskeep: Now, you just said 14 million Americans will lose health coverage. Republicans have said, listen, we’re just going to make Medicaid more efficient. We’re not going to harm coverage. Can you cite your source on the 14 million people losing coverage?

Merkley: Yes, that’s the Congressional Budget Office. And part of the reconciliation process was established at the same time that the Congressional Budget Office was created to have honest numbers so that we wouldn’t be fooling ourselves or fooling the American people.

Note: A preliminary CBO estimate found that some 13.7 people could lose health insurance coverage by 2034 through proposed changes to Medicaid, expiring tax credits and a proposed change to a healthcare marketplace rule.  

Inskeep: Congressional Budget Office, this is supposed to be a nonpartisan estimate on what budget measures would do. Now, you mentioned the process by which this is being done. It’s supposed to be about numbers, money, budget measures. If it’s limited to that, you can pass it with a simple majority and without a filibuster. But there are some other provisions in here, such as one that would severely limit judges. It would limit the sort of restraining orders that judges have used to block alleged illegal acts by the Trump administration. Do you think that provision is likely to stay in the final bill?

Merkley: We think it’s very likely it will come out. We have this procedure that we affectionately refer to as ‘The Birdbath’ after Robert Byrd, who helped establish these rules. And it basically says something that’s primarily policy and not about raising money or spending money on programs cannot be in the bill. So we will challenge it and we anticipate that parliamentarians will agree with us and that Republicans will say, okay, we’ll take it out, unless they decide to go with the nuclear option and just run over the top of the process.

Inskeep: Which Republicans have done a little bit of. There’s also a provision in here that would ban states from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade. Do you think that’s likely to stay in?

Merkley: I think that’s likely to come out as well. And we see that when Democrats have used reconciliation, the reverse has occurred. For example, we had wanted to cap insulin at $35 a month for all Americans, regardless of whether on Medicare or Medicaid, regular insurance. And Republicans challenged it and we had to strip it out of our reconciliation bill.

Inskeep: One other thing I want to ask about. It appears, based on the numbers that I have seen, that even though there are spending cuts in this bill, there are so many tax cuts as well and other things that it would actually increase the federal deficit, which means we collectively borrow more. People are concerned about the federal debt, the amount that we borrow. We’re going to borrow more under this bill. But do Democrats have anything they can put on the table that would reduce the deficit, that would reduce the amount of federal borrowing?

Merkley: Oh, absolutely. And that’s to cut the tax breaks that go to the very richest Americans. The bill is written such that the top 10% in America will get about $90,000 a year in increased income, and the bottom 20% will get about $90. So $90,000 for the rich, per year. $90 for struggling families. So let’s strip out those tax breaks for billionaires. It would save a tremendous amount of money.

Inskeep: President Trump said he favored tax hikes for the wealthy, but there are none in this bill as it’s currently drafted. Is that right?

Merkley: Yes, that’s correct.

This digital story was edited by Obed Manuel. The radio version was edited by Ally Schweitzer and produced by Nia Dumas.