Senate Republicans unveiled their compromise budget blueprint designed to move the House and Senate towards passing identical budget resolutions in order to unlock the reconciliation process to renew the 2017 tax cuts and increase the nation’s debt limit. The resolution would extend President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and allow an additional $1.5 trillion in new cuts. Senate Republicans are also bypassing, for now, a ruling from the Senate parliamentarian and moving forward with the budget resolution based on a novel “current baseline scoring” set by Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-SC) that assumes extending President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts won’t add to the deficit. This is prompting Democrats to accuse Republicans of going “nuclear” by flouting the Senate’s established rules and precedents. This is a risky play, however, because it means the Senate parliamentarian could deem the baseline tactic to run afoul of reconciliation rules later, which would complicate the bill’s path in the Senate. House Republican deficit hawks are already pushing back on the Senate Republicans’ compromise budget resolution.
Meanwhile, GOP House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chair Vern Buchanan (R-FL) said he would oppose cutting Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid to pay for the reconciliation package, adding that Republicans could find pay-fors by rooting out waste in the programs. There is also growing discussion among Republicans about raising the corporate tax rate and the individual income tax rates for people in the highest tax bracket as lawmakers search for pay-fors to fund President Trump’s myriad tax pledges and some special tax cuts favored by key Republican members of Congress.