WASHINGTON ― Congressional Republicans want to use a controversial budget gimmick to pass their $5 trillion tax cut package ― and they plan to steamroll the Senate rules to make it happen.
Their risky and never-before-used strategy hinges on how to account for the bill’s impact on the deficit. Republicans want to use a “current policy” baseline, which assumes the 2017 tax cuts will be extended permanently even though they are due to expire this year. Under this method, which has been roundly panned by bipartisan budget experts, Republicans could claim that a huge part of the tax cuts would be cost-free. In reality, however, they would blow a massive hole in the deficit.
Initially, Republicans were expected to seek a green light on using “current policy” from the Senate parliamentarian, who advises the chamber on its rules and parliamentary procedure. But a meeting between the parliamentarian and Democratic and Republican budget staffers was canceled on Tuesday, a sign that Senate Republicans are planning to go their own way.
Republican leaders argued in a closed-door lunch on Tuesday that Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has sufficient authority under the Congressional Budget Act to score their reconciliation bill using “current policy” himself, without needing a ruling from the parliamentarian.
“By law — it is the chairman’s call,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) told HuffPost.
But Democrats said that ignoring the Senate parliamentarian on the matter and pressing forward with a “current policy” baseline would be tantamount to going “nuclear” and breaking Senate rules, further weakening the institution.
“That would be going nuclear. It shows that Republicans are so hellbent on giving these tax breaks to the billionaires that they’re willing to break any rules, norms and things they promised they wouldn’t do,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters on Tuesday.
“Republicans are adding magic rules to their magic math,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) added. “At the end of the day, none of this will work. A $4.7 trillion tax giveaway to billionaires will cost $4.7 trillion, and cuts to Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid will be real and cost millions of people around this country.”
Republicans will face obstacles with this approach, however. Democrats are sure to challenge it on the Senate floor by mounting a parliamentary inquiry. That may require near-total unanimity on the GOP side of the aisle to overrule the parliamentarian ruling and keep intact their budget resolution, which is expected to come up for a vote this week.
That’s unless Republicans structure the inquiry in such a way that they technically wouldn’t be voting to overrule the parliamentarian, an aggressive move that would make some GOP senators uncomfortable.
“The way it’s going to be set up is, it’s not overruling the parliamentarian, it’s a parliamentarian inquiry as to whether or not the [Budget] chairman can do this,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said of the GOP plan. “We would not be overruling the parliamentarian, we would be supporting the interpretation of the chairman.”
But the Alaska Republican seemed skeptical about how this would all work, saying her party’s strategy is “not fully jelled” just yet.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a member of the Senate Budget Committee, said Republicans were risking failure by not getting all their ducks in a row with the Senate parliamentarian.
“It’s better to find out now, rather than take such a big bet and risk it all blowing up in the future,” he told HuffPost.
