It began early Sunday when Senate Republicans narrowly cleared a key procedural hurdle on President Donald Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill with a 51-49 vote. That success triggered a procedural temper tantrum from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who responded by forcing the full reading of the 940-page bill on the Senate floor — a process that took more than 16 hours and left Senate clerks, stenographers, and pages enduring what can only be described as legislative hazing.
Schumer’s objection to unanimous consent was a deliberate move to stall momentum, but the only thing it accomplished was souring the mood in a chamber already stretched thin by political theatrics and partisan bickering.
Even Democrats are running out of patience.
Senator John Fetterman (D-PA), already on record as a “no” vote, appeared visibly exhausted and openly irritated with the delay. “I’ve already missed our entire trip to the beach,” he said, referring to a family vacation. “I just want to go home.” Fetterman’s frustration reflects a broader sentiment: the longer this drags on, the more clear it becomes that the real punishment is being dished out to Senate staff and support personnel forced to ride out the theatrics.
FETTERMAN: “I just want to go home…. I’ve missed our entire trip to the beach.” pic.twitter.com/XNXqm4OHYE
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 30, 2025
The bill itself is anything but inconsequential. It seeks to make the 2017 Trump tax cuts permanent, fully fund immigration enforcement, and impose work requirements for Medicaid — reforms that Republicans argue are long overdue to rein in unsustainable entitlement spending and incentivize labor participation.
Democrats, predictably, oppose virtually every component, and their votes reflect that. On Sunday, they even voted to keep illegal immigrants eligible for welfare benefits — a policy stance that continues to defy both public opinion and fiscal logic.
The amendment process, still underway as part of the vote-a-rama, has been a slog. Each proposed change is being debated and voted on, while the clock keeps ticking and tempers wear thin.
Fetterman: https://t.co/tvjgIpun71 pic.twitter.com/JR5pSafxCN
— Ireland Owens (@IrelandOwens1) June 30, 2025
And while Fetterman may have The Beach Boys’ “Sloop John B” stuck on replay in his head (“I feel so broke up, I wanna go home”), the true casualties of Schumer’s procedural grandstanding are the clerks and floor staff, who spent hours reciting dense legislative text because one party leader wanted to make a point no one will remember a week from now.
The bill is not perfect — but its passage would prevent massive tax hikes, restore fiscal discipline, and bring much-needed sanity back to a welfare system stretched thin. Meanwhile, Democrats continue to opt for symbolism over substance, procedural sabotage over governance, and policies that reward dependency over those that uplift working families.
