Democrats channel their outrage over DOGE, Ukraine and more in marathon Senate session

WASHINGTON — The budget resolution from Republicans was on the agenda in the Senate, but the late-night debate encompassed so much more. From Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency slicing through the federal workforce to Trump’s attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the GOP plan to extend tax breaks including for the wealthy and cut safety net programs, far more than the $340 billion budget framework on border security and deportations came under scrutiny. And this budget proposal will only add fuel to the fire.” Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Budget Committee, test-drove a new term — “Trumpflation” — and asked what in the president’s “big, beautiful, bill” would help Americans. “There’s nothing ‘beautiful’ about destroying programs families depend on.” As the “vote-a-rama” dragged into the wee hours Democrats proposed amendments to bar tax breaks for billionaires and millionaires, reverse DOGE firings of public workers and program cuts to government services, preserve Medicaid, help Ukraine and on and on. Nearing daybreak, when Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., offered an amendment to prevent “unvetted and unaccountable” DOGE workers to access Americans’ private information in government databases, Republicans brought it down on a voice vote, with a thundering no.