Senate Republicans announced on Wednesday 70 pages of budget resolution They say they give Lindsay Graham (Rs.C.), the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, a solid ally of President Trump, the power to determine whether the 2017 Trump tax cuts will officially be added to the federal deficit.
Republicans force Graham to use the “current policy” budget baseline to obtain tax cuts and employment extensions in 2017, and employment will work even in the 10-year budget window from 2025 to 2034, even if it is no longer than that window.
It would set stages to advance Trump's legal agenda around a democratic filibuster, allowing Republicans to make Trump's 2017 tax cuts permanent if it overcomes democratic procedural challenges.
Graham said in a statement that he has the authority to “determine the baseline number of spending and income” under section 312 of the Congressional Budget Act.
“Under that authority, I have determined that the current policy will be the baseline for taxation budgets, which will make the tax cuts permanent.
Graham argued that the previous Budget Committee chair had used this authority to direct the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation on how to adjust the scoring model to “determine spending and spending levels.”
The resolution states that the Senate Budget Committee Chairman “could use more realistic assumptions about current tax policy. [of] Tax cuts and employment will be carried out to prevent significant tax increases for working families and small and medium-sized businesses. ”
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (NY) has accused Republicans of breaking Senate rules to make Trump's tax cuts permanent.
“Senate Republicans are so strong at cutting billionaires' taxes, that they are now willing to explode Senate rules, violate norms and traditions, and break their words to accomplish it,” he said on the Senate floor.
“Republicans are doing what they say they never do. They're likely to be at the core,” he added.
“Republicans know that the so-called current policy baseline gimmicks won't fly. It's Hocus Pocus. Even right-wing Republican Chip Roy called it “fairy dust,”” he said.
If Republicans adopted the customary “current law” baseline for budget resolutions, they would have requested an extension of Trump's tax cuts to sunset within the next decade.
By empowering Graham to set budget baselines so that Trump's 2017 tax cut extension is determined not to be added to the deficit after 2034, Republicans don't need to add language to those tax cuts within the next decade to comply with the Senate Bird rules.
The Byrd rule includes a test that prohibits laws passed under a settlement to the budget, either by increasing or reducing budgets, by reducing budget increases or revenue.
Republicans use the budget settlement process to get Trump's legislative agenda through the Senate with a simple majority vote, avoiding democratic filibusters.
If Graham adopts a budget baseline that judges the 2017 tax cut extension as deficit neutral, Senate Republicans feel there is less political pressure to remind them of major spending cuts to offset the financial impact.
The resolution released by Graham on Wednesday includes instructions to several committees to reduce the deficit, including the Senate Agriculture, Banking, Health, Energy and Natural Resources Committee to reduce the deficit.
But even as they plan to cut spending, Senate Republicans have acknowledged in their budget resolution that the deficit is likely to grow significantly over the next few years.
Graham has included language in his budget resolutions that directs the Senate Treasury Committee to report changes to the law to raise changes to the law within its statutory obligations to “less than $5 trillion.”
Senate majority leader John Tune (Rs.D.) welcomed the unveiling of Senate Republican budget proposals as a key step to moving Trump's agenda forward, claiming that the senators have signed the legislation.
“In addition to preventing trillion dollar tax increases on Americans, this budget resolution paves the way for generational investments in border security and defense, unleashing American energy control,” Thune said in a statement.
He said the senator “considered an alternative amendment to the Budget Committee and determined it was suitable for consideration under the Budget Act.”
“Now is the time for the Senate to move forward with this budget resolution to further advance the Republican Republican agenda in Congress,” he said.
But Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee argued that they have not specifically approved Graham's plan to use current policy baselines to obtain an extension of Trump's tax cuts if not added to the future deficit.
“The Republican budget resolution does not include any language that allows current policy baselines to be used to measure settlements,” Democrats said.
“The Congressional decision that this is suitable for consideration under the Budget Act should not be interpreted as an approval of the use of current policy baselines. The claim that Congress has approved the use of current policy baselines is false,” they added.
