Fetterman sides with Trump on border security spending. Is he backing the tax bill, too?
Sen. John Fetterman has irked Democrats with his independent streak, yet he says he is with his colleagues in opposing the sweeping Trump tax bill
WASHINGTON − If there is one aspect of the Republicans' sweeping tax cut bill he can back, Sen. John Fetterman says it is the billions earmarked for advancing President Donald Trump's southern border wall and mass deportation plan.
"I absolutely support those kinds of investments to make our border security as well," Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said during a June 2 event at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston alongside his state counterpart, Republican Sen. Dave McCormick.
Still, Fetterman made clear he is a "no" on the House-passed bill, at least in its current form.
His primary objections, Fetterman said, are the legislation's increase to the national debt − something Republican members are raising concerns about too − and Medicaid reforms that experts have said could leave around 7 million Americans without health insurance over the next 10 years.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement on May 29 that Democrats are united in opposing the bill. Without any help from Democrats like Fetterman, Senate Majority Leader John Thune will need to rally his party members, with only three "no" votes to spare.
Multiple GOP senators have aired grievances publicly, including Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin who told CNN last week that he believed there are enough Republicans to block the bill from passing as it currently stands. Johnson and others have criticized the 1,000-plus-page bill for adding somewhere around $3 trillion to the federal deficit within the next decade.
Fetterman, at the June 2 event in Boston moderated by Fox Nation, said he agrees the increase to federal debt is troubling. "That's a significant danger for our nation's future, honestly," he said.
"But if I had to find something in that big, beautiful bill that I could support," Fetterman added, using Trump's popular nickname for the legislation, "that's the border."
He went on to say he believes Democrats have not handled border security "appropriately."
First elected to Congress in 2022, the Pennsylvania Democrat has ruffled feathers on the left with his independent streak and willingness to play nice with Republicans.
In January, he was the first Democratic senator to endorse the Laken Riley Act, a border security measure that eventually passed with bipartisan support. Fetterman has also been outspoken and at times at odds with his party in his support of Israel.
"Sometimes that's put me at the odds of my party and my base, to assume that I've changed my values," Fetterman said at the event. "That's never changed."