Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) pressed Senate Republicans to advance President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which the House passed earlier this week. 

Gingrich said that GOP senators have “every right” to formulate their version of the president’s mega bill, but if they care about the United States economy and their constituents, they will eventually vote to pass it through the upper chamber and get it to Trump’s desk for signing. 

“It blocks a huge tax increase, it creates much better regulatory environment. It takes out a great deal of the waste in government. It’s not perfect. Look. We balanced the budget for four straight years for the only time in the last century, but we didn’t do it overnight. We didn’t do it the first or second year,” Gingrich said during his Friday night appearance on Fox News’ “Jesse Waters Primetime.” 

“You have to chip away at these things. Get the best you can plan to come back again next year or come back this fall on the appropriations bills, but keep moving,” the former House speaker told guest host Kayleigh McEnany. 

Some Republican senators have already flagged portions of the bill they wish to alter, including Medicaid reforms and expressed concerns that the 1,116-page bill, which the House passed Thursday morning, does not have big enough spending cuts to rein in spending. 

Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), both fiscal hawks, have said that currently they are opposed to voting for the legislation. 

“There should be a goal of this Republican Senate budget resolution to reduce the deficit, not increase it. We’re increasing it. It’s a nonstarter from my standpoint,” Johnson said this week.

The Congressional Budget Office said the legislation would add $3.8 trillion to the debt. Johnson said there are “at least” four senators in the GOP conference who would currently vote against the bill if deeper spending cuts are not instituted. 

Another group of GOP senators have expressed concern about the Medicaid reforms that would cut benefits. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she is “very worried” about reductions in federal Medicaid funding to states that will amp up pressure on rural hospitals. 

Others, such as Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) want to tighten up the availability of Medicaid for able-bodied adults. 

“Medicaid ought to go back and do what it was set up to do. It was set up to take care of poor children and the chronically ill, and that’s what the focus should be,” Scott said.

House Republicans warned Senate Republicans against significantly watering down the massive bill. They are open to the Senate enacting some changes, particularly if more spending cuts are installed and senators work on reducing the deficit, but are looking to keep the phase-out of green-energy subsidies and revised Medicaid requirements. 

“And I encouraged our Senate colleagues to think of this as a one-team effort, as we have, and to modify this as little as possible, because it will make it easier for us to get it over the line, ultimately, and finished and get it to the president’s desk by July 4,” Speaker Mike Johson (R-La.) said Tuesday after meeting with Senate Republicans. 

Gingrich advised senators that after they are done amending and arguing about the bill, they should vote for its passing “because to vote no is voting for a giant tax increase.”

“It’s voting to cripple the government. It’s voting to make it very difficult for President Trump to create the kind of America that he was voted to create,” the ex-House speaker added. “And frankly, it goes against the wishes of virtually every Republican who put the senators in office.”