The Senate entered a political showdown over President Trump's domestic agenda on Friday. Democrats have begun to force dozens of votes planned for overnight sessions to protest Republican push to provide “one big beautiful bill” of spending and tax cuts.
The GOP must pass through a budget blueprint to unlock a process known as a settlement. This allows lawmakers to quickly track budget laws through Congress and protect them from filibusters. The disagreement between House Republicans and the Senate was in the Senate about how the bill was paralyzed for weeks, but they built fragile, complicated compromises that allowed them to move forward.
“This resolution is the first step in the final bill that was implemented in 2017 to make tax exemptions permanent and provides transformative investments in border, national and energy security.”
However, in the Senate, members can offer amendments to the ritual budgetary measures known as “Voting the Lama.” The proposal never becomes law, but this process allows minorities to force a series of politically difficult votes that can be used against lawmakers in campaign ads later.
Democrats planned to propose amendments that would force Republicans to escalate Trump's global trade war, Elon Musk's cost-cutting government efficiency, Medicaid cuts, and forced national security authorities to use recent signals in the Trump administration.
“Democrats will come all day long to the floor to expose the pure destruction of the Republican agenda,” Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, a minority leader, said at a press conference in Capitol on Friday.
The budget resolution itself leaves the big questions unsolved.
In February, House Republicans passed measures that paved the way for one huge bill, including a 10-year tax cut of $4.5 trillion and a $2 trillion cut of $2 trillion in federal spending. Senate Republicans passed their own plan to punt tax and spending cuts issues, seeking an increase of $150 billion in military spending and another $175 billion for border security over the next decade.
Rather than reconciliating these issues now, Republicans essentially agreed to postpone decisions on a larger issue. This can be where you can cut your spending to offset the cost of tax cuts or find those cuts.
On paper, a new Senate budget overview would allow for a $1.5 trillion tax cut. But those numbers disguise an additional $3.8 trillion to extend the 2017 tax cut that Senate Republicans would also like to include in the bill.
The 2017 tax cut is scheduled to expire at the end of the year, so an extension must be included in the bill, but Republicans say they will pilot budget rules and declare travel expenses. So the actual magnitude of the tax cuts assumed in the Senate overview is around $5.3 trillion over a decade, and $1.5 trillion is available for new tax cuts, such as Trump's proposal to not give tax hints. That's far greater than the $4.5 trillion Republicans gave themselves.
That is just the beginning of the difference between the House and Senate budget plans. With additional spending on defense and immigration, and minimal spending cuts, the Senate resolution could add around $5.7 trillion to its debt over the next decade. Debt restrictions call for an increase of $5 trillion compared to the House plan's $4 trillion increase. And House Republicans are pursuing deep spending cuts aimed at keeping the overall package at $2.8 trillion.
Some Republicans in the House say they don't want to support a Senate resolution that doesn't call for more financial restraint.
“Let's be true about this. Let's worry about our debts,” said Greg Murphy, a North Carolina Republican. “If we don't worry about our debts, we don't know how it will work.”
Maya C. Miller Reports of contributions.
