Early Friday morning, the Senate adopted a resolution on a budget that will outline parameters for future legislation to fund border protection, immigration enforcement, and defense needs.

The budget was approved by a vote of 52 to 48, with all Democrats voting against it, including Sen. Rand Paul (Republican from Kentucky).

The final vote was held after a voteathon, during which senators were able to offer unlimited amendments on the budget resolution. The vote-arama started just before 7 pm on Thursday and lasted almost 10 hours.

The majority of the amendments were from Democrats who wanted to attack GOP goals, even those not included in the budget reconciliation instructions.

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These instructions require up to $345 Billion in funding for border protection, immigration enforcement and national defense. Offsetting spending reductions would be bundled together in a later budget reconciliation package.

The reconciliation process allows Republicans avoid the threat of Democratic filibustering and pass their priority on a simple majoritarian vote.

Democrats have argued that Republicans are cutting spending on programs such as health care, education, and other programs which low and middle income Americans depend on in order to subsidise tax cuts for wealthy Americans.

“Republicans’ North Star is singular and unchanging: they’re trying give their billionaire friends a tax cut while you, the American public, American families pay the cost,” said Charles E. Schumer (Democrat), Senate Minority Leader of New York.

The Senate budget, despite Democrats’ constant messaging, does not contain instructions on how to pass legislation that would reduce taxes.

Republicans in the upper house prefer to save this for a second reconciliatory effort. This is despite the fact that the House GOP has a separate budget that would bundle the funding of national security and tax cuts, along with spending cuts, and an increase in the debt limit.

The President has approved the House Budget, which will be voted on by the lower chamber next week. He hasn’t stopped the Senate from advancing their budget. Republican leaders acknowledge that this is a back-up plan in case of failure by the House budget.

Although Senate Republicans are mostly united around their budget, there is no consensus on whether they will advance Mr. Trump’s priorities through one or two reconciliation bills.

Mr. Paul, the lone Republican who voted against the budget because it did not have a plan for cutting spending in the face of rising deficits, was the only Republican.

Senate GOP leaders claim they will find enough savings to offset the $342 Billion in new spending that they expect to authorize.

“None” of the offsets promised by Mr. Paul was listed in the budget.

He proposed an amendment that would readjust the floor of the spending cuts to $1.5 trillion. This was the same amount as the House Budget Resolution. The bill failed by a vote of 24-76. All Democrats and 29 Republicans joined together to oppose it.

Mr. Paul stated that his colleagues have been talking a lot about being fiscally conservative and supporting the efforts of Elon Musk and Department of Government Efficiency in order to cut spending across the federal governments but they have not yet shown that they are willing codify this with legislation.

He said that all the talk about saving money is just a fable. “It’s not real until Congress votes on it.”