Eighteen Senate Republicans backed an amendment overnight Tuesday that would have let President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts expire for the highest-earning Americans.
The measure, sponsored by Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins, sought to raise taxes on individuals making more $25 million per year or couples who report more than $50 million of combined income. Though seventeen of Collins’ Republican colleagues joined her in voting “yes,” the Senate easily rejected the amendment to Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill during a vote of 22 to 78.
Collins’ amendment would have let the top rate revert back to the pre-2017 rate of 39.6%, up from the current 37% rate. The revenue would go toward doubling the size of a rural hospital fund, which Senate Republicans have currently provided $25 billion for within the president’s tax and immigration bill.
Just four Senate Democrats, including Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, voted for the measure. Most Democrats opposed Collins’ amendment, arguing the boost to the rural hospital fund was not enough to address alleged Medicaid financing issues they argued would be created by passing Republican’s budget bill into law.
Collins, a moderate Republican up for reelection in 2026, notably voted to start debate on the Senate’s proposal, but has not committed to backing the bill during a vote on final passage.
She told reporters she is leaning toward opposing the bill during a vote on final passage during a marathon session of voting currently underway in the Senate.
“My position has not changed,” Collins told reporters. “But you know, if there are a lot of amendments accepted that could make a difference, that’s why I just don’t want to prejudge what’s happening.”
Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski also voted for Collins’ millionaire tax proposal. She is also emerging as a holdout to backing the upper chamber’s bill as Senate GOP leadership eyes a vote on final passage early Tuesday morning.
The failed vote on enacting a millionaire tax follows Trump giving mixed messages about enacting a higher tax rate on Americans with the highest incomes in his “big, beautiful” bill.
Trump told GOP lawmakers that they should “probably not” increase taxes for the highest-earning Americans. However, he conceded that he would not object to lawmakers enacting a millionaire tax in their budget bill.
“The problem with even a ‘TINY’ tax increase for the RICH, which I and all others would graciously accept in order to help the lower and middle income workers, is that the Radical Left Democrat Lunatics would go around screaming, ‘Read my lips,’ the fabled Quote by George Bush the Elder that is said to have cost him the Election,” Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social, referencing the 1992 presidential race. “NO, Ross Perot cost him the Election! In any event, Republicans should probably not do it, but I’m OK if they do!!!”
The pro-tax cut organization Club for Growth slammed Collins’ amendment as a “poison pill.”
“The amendment would fulfill a Kamala Harris proposal to increase taxes which has been firmly rejected by the American People,” the fiscally conservative group said in a statement.
Collins’ amendment could have had a limited impact of reaching the wealthiest Americans who generate most of their income through dividends and capital gains.
