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 to several committees to reduce the deficit, including the Senate Agriculture, Banking, Health and Energy and Natural Resources committees to reduce the deficit.
But even while they plan to cut spending, Senate Republicans acknowledge in their budget resolution that the deficit is likely to grow substantially over the next few years.
Graham has included language in the budget resolution instructing the Senate Finance Committee to report changes in laws within its jurisdiction to raise the statutory debt limit by “not more than $5 trillion.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) hailed the unveiling of the Senate Republican budget proposal as a major step toward advancing Trump’s agenda and asserted that the Senate parliamentarian had signed off on the legislation.
“In addition to preventing an automatic multi-trillion-dollar tax increase on the American people, this budget resolution will pave the way for a generational investment in border security and national defense and unleash American energy dominance,” Thune said in a statement.
He said the Senate parliamentarian “has reviewed the Budget Committee’s substitute amendment and deemed it appropriate for consideration under the Budget Act.”
“It is now time for the Senate to move forward with this budget resolution in order to further advance our shared Republican agenda in Congress,” he said.
Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee, however, argued that the parliamentarian has not specifically approved Graham’s plan to use a current policy baseline to score an extension of the Trump tax cuts as not adding to future deficits.
“The Republicans’ budget resolution does not contain language permitting them to use the current policy baseline to measure reconciliation,” the Democrats said.
“The parliamentarian’s decision that this is appropriate for consideration under the Budget Act should not be construed as an approval of the use of a current policy baseline. Any assertion that the Parliamentarian approved the use of a current policy baseline is false,” they added.
