Senate Republicans on Wednesday unveiled a 70-page budget resolution that they say would give Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a staunch ally of President Trump, the power to determine whether extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts officially adds to the federal deficit.
Republicans say the bill empowers Graham to use a “current policy” budget baseline to score an extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as not adding to the deficit, neither in the 10-year budget window from 2025 to 2034 nor in the years beyond that window.
That would set the stage for advancing Trump’s legislation agenda around a Democratic filibuster, and would, if it survives a Democratic procedural challenge, enable Republicans to make Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent.
Graham in a statement said he has authority under Section 312 of the Congressional Budget Act “to determine baseline numbers for spending and revenue.”
“Under that authority, I have determined that current policy will be the budget baseline regarding taxation. This will allow the tax cuts to be permanent — which will tremendously boost the economy,” he said.
Graham argued that previous Budget Committee chairs have used this authority to “determine spending and spending levels” and to instruct the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation on how to adjust their scoring models.
The resolution says that the Senate Budget Committee chair may use “more realistic assumptions regarding current tax policy, which may include … extending provisions [of] the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act … in order to prevent massive tax increases on working families and small businesses.”
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) accused Republicans of breaking the Senate rules to make the Trump tax cuts permanent.
“Senate Republicans are so hell-bent on cutting taxes for billionaires, they’re now willing to detonate the rules of the Senate, violate norms and traditions, and break their word to get it done,” he said on the Senate floor.
“Republicans are doing something they said they’d never do: They are about to go nuclear,” he added, referring to the controversial step of changing an important Senate rule or precedent with a simple-majority vote.
“Republicans know their so-called current policy baseline gimmick won’t likely fly. It's hocus-pocus. Even right-wing Republican Chip Roy called it ‘fairy dust,’” he said, referring to Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas).
If Republicans had adopted the customary “current law” baseline for the budget resolution, it would have required them to sunset an extension of the Trump tax cuts within the next decade.
By empowering Graham to set the budget baseline in such a way that an extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts is judged as not adding to the deficit after 2034, Republicans do not need to add language to sunset those tax cuts within the next decade to comply with the Senate’s Byrd Rule.
The Byrd Rule includes a test prohibiting legislation passed under budget reconciliation from adding to the deficit — either by increasing spending or reducing revenue — in the years beyond the budget window.
Republicans are using the budget reconciliation process to get Trump’s legislative agenda through the Senate with a simple-majority vote and avoid a Democratic filibuster.
If Graham adopts a budget baseline that judges an extension of the 2017 tax cuts as deficit-neutral, then Senate Republicans will feel less political pressure to come up with big spending cuts to offset their fiscal impact.
The resolution unveiled by Graham on Wednesday includes instructions ...
