U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine was one of two Republicans who opposed a budget framework the Senate passed early Saturday, setting the stage for tax and spending cuts that are key to President Donald Trump’s agenda.
The 51-48 vote is effectively the beginning of a monthslong process in which Republicans will try to push what Trump has called a “big, beautiful bill” bill through both chambers of Congress. But it will not be easy with Republicans of different stripes wary about different aspects of the package, including its effects on Medicaid and the national debt.
Collins previewed her opposition earlier in the week by telling reporters she saw no way lawmakers could meet a House Republican target in the bill charging a committee that oversees Medicaid with reducing deficits by $880 billion by 2034 without Medicaid cuts.
That “would be very detrimental to a lot of families and disabled individuals and seniors in my state,” the centrist Republican said overnight.
The long process could put the Maine senator further in the spotlight in the approach to her 2026 reelection. Trump singled her and a few other Republicans out earlier in the week for their votes against his Canada tariffs, and Democrats are making Collins one of their top targets again next year despite uncertainty about who they will run against her.
Any discussion of Medicaid cuts will come at a bad time for Maine hospitals, which are already struggling with paused payments that won’t end until June because of a delayed state budget. The Augusta hospital cited that in laying off 100 people last month. Births are also dropping in rural areas, leading hospitals in Bar Harbor and Houlton to close their maternity wards.
Only Collins and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, defected from their fellow Republicans in the early Saturday vote that came after Trump’s global tariff scheme sent the stock market into a tailspin. Experts are warning of soaring costs for consumers at home and threats of a potential recession.
The evening kicked off what’s called a “vote-a-rama” as Democrats made the Republicans’ effort as politically painful as possible, with action on some two dozen amendments to the package. Collins voted for several of them, including those looking to guard against Medicaid cuts, support rural hospitals and provide tax relief to the middle class.
Republicans framed their work as preventing a tax increase for most American families, arguing that unless Congress acts, the individual and estate tax cuts that they passed in 2017 will expire at the end of this year.
“It fulfills our promises to secure the border, to rebuild our economy and to restore peace through strength,” Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, said.
Republicans in the House and Senate will have to navigate concerns from centrists like Collins as well as deficit hawks in the House. A new estimate from the Joint Committee on Taxation projects the tax breaks will add $5.5 trillion to the deficit over the next decade when including interest, and $4.6 trillion not including interest.
To initiate the process of passing a party-line plan, the Republican senators included an accounting trick that officially makes the tax breaks look cost-neutral. They also added an additional $1.5 trillion that would allow some of Trump’s costly campaign promises, such as no taxes on tips, Social Security benefits and overtime, swelling the overall price tag to $7 trillion.
Opposition to the proposal has already united Maine’s congressional delegation. Rep. Jared Golden, a centrist Democrat from the 2nd District, hammered it in a Saturday statement as a “naked attempt to further tilt the system against the many in favor of the few at the top.”
But Collins will be the focal point on major budget issues over the next few months. She chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, which just had to give up earmarks that would have been titled heavily toward Maine as part of a short-term spending deal. She was closely watched before voting in 2017 to back Trump’s signature tax-cut package.
“Trump’s policies are a disaster,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said during floor debate. “Republicans could snuff it out tonight, if they wanted.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
