GOP poised to push budget blueprint through Senate
WASHINGTON — Republicans controlling the Senate appeared set to muscle their $4 trillion budget plan through the Senate late Thursday, turning back successive attempts by Democrats to derail GOP plans for a tax cut later this year.
A pair of 52-47 votes kept the GOP budget blueprint on track. The measure would set the stage for tax legislation later this year that could pass through the Senate without fear of a filibuster by Democrats — and add $1.5 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years.
President Donald Trump weighed in Thursday, telling reporters that “I think we have the votes for the budget, which will be phase one of our massive tax cuts and reform.”
Only one Republican senator, Rand Paul of Kentucky, has expressed opposition to the budget, which shelves GOP deficit concerns in favor of the party’s tax cut drive.
The upcoming tax measure has taken on even greater urgency with the failure of the party to carry out its longstanding promise to dismantle former President Barack Obama’s health care law.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the tax-writing finance committee, proposed stripping the GOP of its ability to push through subsequent tax legislation without fear of a Democratic filibuster, arguing tax reform should be bipartisan — as was the tax reform effort signed into law by former President Ronald Reagan three decades ago.
“It’s just the opposite of the kind of approach Ronald Reagan and Democrats used in 1986,” Wyden said. “It’s going to polarize us rather than bring us together.” Wyden’s effort failed.
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats failed in their attempt to save the state and local tax deduction, which helps many residents of high-cost states reduce their federal income tax bills.
Supporters of the deduction noted that the GOP tax overhaul framework does not propose to eliminate the ability of corporations to deduct state and local taxes as a business expense.
“Corporations can claim it, individuals can’t? Isn’t that backward?” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., asked Thursday in a speech on the Senate floor. “It shouldn’t be taken from either one.”
The House passed its version of the budget last week. It calls for tax cuts that don’t add to the deficit and would pair the tax rewrite measure with $200 billion in spending cuts over the coming decade. Both plans seek to crack open a long-standing ban on oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
In reality, lawmakers are pressing to break open the measure’s tight spending “caps” on the Pentagon and domestic agency operations. away