The Senate narrowly passed President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” reconciliation spending package on Tuesday with a tie breaking vote from Vice President J.D. Vance and opposition from Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), whose proposed amendment failed earlier on the same day.
“I strongly support extending the tax relief for families and small businesses. My vote against this bill stems primarily from the harmful impact it will have on Medicaid, affecting low-income families and rural health care providers like our hospitals and nursing homes,” said Sen. Collins, explaining her vote on X.
“While I continue to support the tax relief I voted for in 2017, I could not support these Medicaid changes and other issues,” she added.
Collins, along with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), broke with their party and opposed the bill, though not all for the same reasons. While Collins and Sen. Tillis were more concerned with the bill’s Medicaid cuts, Sen. Paul believed that it failed to cut enough spending, and was concerned about its impact on the national debt.
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) joined the dissident Republicans and every other Democratic senator in opposing the bill, resulting in a 50-50 tie, which was broken in favor of enactment by Vice President Vance.
The spending package cut Medicaid benefits, increased resources for border enforcement and deportations, and maintained tax cuts, while also significantly raising the debt ceiling.
All of Maine’s congressional delegation have issued statements in opposition to the Big Beautiful Bill.
Sen. King posted a picture of the Senate floor with the ominous statement “Never have so many been so grievously hurt in the service of so few,” riffing off a World War II-era Winston Churchill quote and — where he gets original — suggesting that the spending package is among the greatest evils in human history.
Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) who voted against the bill when it first came before the House, decried its passage.
“Mainers deserve better than a Congress that takes away their health care and saddles their children with unsustainable debt to fund tax breaks for the wealthiest people and corporations in our country. I am proud that Maine’s delegation stood against it,” said Golden.
Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) has criticized the bill numerous times prior to its passage in the Senate.
“Republicans are fighting to protect giveaways for the ultra-rich—while slashing health care, energy savings, and child nutrition. This is what their priorities look like. American families deserve better,” said Rep. Pingree on Facebook.
Despite Collins’ “no” vote, the Maine Democrats nevertheless condemned her on social media, falsely claiming that she cast the deciding vote that allowed the bill to pass.
“Senate Republicans officially passed their dangerous reconciliation bill—only made possible by Senator Susan Collins’ deciding vote to greenlight it,” said the Maine Democrats.
[RELATED: Collins Votes to Advance “Big Beautiful Bill”…]
Collins did previously cast a procedural vote to allow the bill to advance to a place where an enactment vote could be held, but she was not the deciding vote in that case either. If she had opposed that vote, the result would have been a tie which Vance would have broken in favor of the bill.
In the lead-up to the final enactment vote, the Senate considered a variety of amendments, including one from Collins that would have increased funding for rural hospitals and hiked taxes for top earners.
“Rural providers, especially our rural hospitals and nursing homes, are under great financial strain right now, with many having recently closed and others being at risk of closing,” said Sen. Collins before the vote on her amendment.
“This amendment would help keep them open and caring for those who live in rural communities,” she added.
The amendment would have introduced a 39.6 percent (as opposed to 37 percent, or a 2.6 percent increase) income tax rate for individuals earning over $25 million annually or married couples earning $50 million.
It would also have increased additional federal funding for rural hospitals from $10 billion to $22.5 billion.
Her amendment drew support from 17 other Republicans, but the majority of Republicans and Democrats joined together to oppose the bill, resulting in a 78-22 vote against the amendment.
[RELATED: 18 GOP Senators Vote in Favor of Collins’ Measure To Raise Taxes On Millionaires]
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) joined his fellow Maine senator in supporting the amendment.
Collins criticized the majority of Democrats who opposed her amendment, which she believed addressed some of their concerns.
“They’ve complained repeatedly about the distribution in this bill, of Medicaid cuts hurting individuals, rural hospitals, and tax cuts being extended for people who are wealthy, and yet when I tried to fix both those problems, they took a very hypocritical approach,” said Collins.
Collins was the only Republican to vote against an amendment that would have barred illegal immigrants from receiving taxpayer funded healthcare benefits via Medicaid. That amendment failed despite receiving a 56-44 vote in support due to the intervention of Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, an unelected bureaucrat.
Following the Senate enactment, the bill will move back to the House for a vote on the Senate-amended version.
