Enough Republicans Oppose Budget Bill to ‘Stop the Process,’ Sen. Johnson Says

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) on May 25 said that there was enough opposition to the House-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act to “stop the process” in the Senate and force President Donald Trump to negotiate changes to the bill.

After weeks of negotiations, the House of Representatives on May 22 approved the legislation in a tight 215–214 vote just before 7 a.m. ET. That vote marked a huge win for House Republican leadership—but Sen. Johnson and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) say they’re skeptical of the package to carry out Trump’s agenda.

Both tied their objections to the megabill’s potential impact on the federal budget.

He said if the process were carried carefully, “people wouldn’t even notice” the bulk of the spending cuts.

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“Part of the problem here is we’ve rushed this process, we haven’t taken the time,” Johnson said.

It’s an early warning sign of the difficulties the package will face in the upper chamber, where Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) can spare no more than three defections to pass the bill—in which case Vice President JD Vance would need to cast the tie-breaking vote.

Nevertheless, the package passed by the Senate will ultimately differ from the bill approved by the House, as the upper chamber is expected to make sweeping changes. Any such bill would then need to win the approval of the House before it could land on Trump’s desk.

“It’s just not a serious proposal,” Paul said.

Paul tied his opposition in part to the House bill’s provisions to raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion.

He said that if the debt ceiling component were removed, he would consider voting for the bill, “even with the rest of [its] imperfections.”

“But I can’t vote to raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion,“ the Kentucky Republican said, citing the Senate’s blueprint for the bill that would raise the debt ceiling beyond the levels in the House bill. ”There’s got to be someone left in Washington who thinks debt is wrong and deficits are wrong and wants to go in the other direction.”

During a Sunday appearance on Fox News Sunday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) pushed back on these estimates, countering that the bill will also grow the U.S. economy to minimize the long-term budget impacts of what is a deficit as it stands.

“The CBO is notorious for getting things WRONG. So, what does it get wrong about the One Big Beautiful Bill? A lot,” the speaker wrote in a post on X, specifically citing the CBO’s assumption of a “historically low growth rate of just 1.8 percent.”

“But POTUS’s bill will be jet fuel for America’s economy,” Johnson wrote. “He delivered the best economy in the world during his first term, and it’s about to happen again with the help of this legislation.”

Other senators have expressed reservations about other components of the House bill.

“The United States produces some of the cleanest and most efficient energy in the world, and an all-of-the-above approach—including support for traditional and renewable energy sources—has long been a hallmark of our energy strategy,” the trio of senators wrote.

“To that end, many American companies have made substantial investments in domestic energy production and infrastructure based on the current energy tax framework. A wholesale repeal, or the termination of certain individual credits, would create uncertainty, jeopardizing capital allocation, long-term project planning, and job creation in the energy sector and across our broader economy.”