Senate moves ahead on GOP budget key to tax-cut plan

WASHINGTON — The Senate is moving ahead on a Republican budget plan, a crucial step in President Donald Trump and the party’s politically imperative drive to cut taxes and simplify the IRS code.

The nonbinding budget plan would permit Republicans to pass follow-up tax cuts later this year that would cost up to $1.5 trillion over the coming decade. The plan cleared a procedural hurdle in the Senate on a party-line vote of 50-47.

The plan breaks with longstanding promises by top Republicans that the upcoming tax drive won’t add to the nation’s $20 trillion debt. Once the budget plan passes through the GOP-controlled Congress, the House and Senate can then advance a follow-up tax overhaul measure without fear of a filibuster by Senate Democrats.

The budget plan calls for $5 trillion in spending cuts over the decade, including cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and the Obama-era health care law, though Republicans have no plans to actually impose those cuts with follow-up legislation.

Tuesday’s vote sets up a vote later this week to pass the budget.

Trump and his GOP allies plan to use the $1.5 trillion in tax cuts to sharply reduce corporate rates and slash taxes on business partnerships such as law firms, medical practices, and accounting firms.

Republicans are relying on optimistic predictions of economic growth that average 2.6 percent a year, while ignoring growing deficits run by Social Security to claim their budget could generate a surplus by 2026.