During this week’s broadcast of FNC’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) predicted the so-called “big, beautiful” budget bill would pass the U.S. Senate.
However, the Missouri Republican also acknowledged work needed to be done on the House version before passage.
Partial transcript as follows:
JACKIE DEANGELIS, HOST: Senator, thank you so much for being here. Want to get your take on how extensive the Senate’s changes are going to be, because, depending on who you talk to, you get a different answer.
And, also, $1.6 trillion in spending cuts. Is it possible the Senate could go deeper, say $2 trillion?
SEN. ERIC SCHMITT (R-MO): Well, I — first of all, I want to acknowledge it’s a big win for President Trump. It’s a big win for Speaker Johnson. There’s a lot of work that went into what the House did, and now it does come over to the Senate.
And I think we’re all pretty committed and unified on this idea of actually delivering on President Trump’s campaign promises and for the American people. So, you saw those tax cuts are going to be made permanent and extended for middle-class families. That’s about $5,000 — up to $5,000 per household.
You have got border funding here to expedite more deportations. You have got money for national defense, which is critical. So I think everybody understands how important that is. But, yes, I do think the Senate’s going to try to look and see if we can find some more savings.
We have been having these discussions for a long time now, that we — actually, the ball is literally in our court now. We will be able to do that and see if we can’t make this big, beautiful bill even more beautiful.
DEANGELIS: OK. Even if you get a little bit deeper on the spending cuts, you still have $4 trillion being spent on the tax extension and the new tax policies that President Trump promised the American people.
So, depending on how you score this, there’s still going to be a little left over to pay for. Many say growth is going to get us out of it. Is that your view?
SCHMITT: I do.
And I think you have seen, at least, even in the House version, a — the largest spending reduction for mandatory spending in 30 years. We also have another crack at discretionary spending. We should be making those DOGE — which are not part of this — making those DOGE reforms permanent.
So we’re going to have other things to do, but as relates to this, I do think there’s critical mass. And I ultimately think the Senate’s going to come together after we sort of work through this to find some more savings, but also make sure that we have got the no tax on tips, we have got the no tax on overtime, all those things that President Trump ran on and received that historic mandate from the American people, winning the popular vote, sweeping the battleground states.
So we will be in close communication with the White House on that, with our House partners. But, in the Senate, it’s our turn to take a look at this. And I think that everybody’s very unified. We understand what a historic opportunity this is, because we only need 51 votes.
So, if Republicans can hold together, we don’t need any votes from Democrats. We don’t expect that they’re going to have suddenly come to their senses and vote for this kind of policy. So we have got some work to do, but we feel pretty positive about it.
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