Washington – Looking at a voting on a budgetary plan of several dollars this week, the Senate Republicans are considering a large -scale decision which would result in a cost of $ 0 to make the tax reductions of President Donald Trump.
And they could do it without contribution from the parliamentarian, the internal arbiter who settles the disputes of the rules, even if the Democrats maintain that such a decision would go against a law governing the process of budgetary “reconciliation” to bypass the threshold of 60 vote of the Senate.
The members of the two parties had planned a meeting this week with the parliamentarian of the Senate Elizabeth Macdonough where the two parties would assert their cause and receive a decision on the validity of the GOP approach. It has not been used before to mark bills under the means of 50 vote, in which Republicans can eliminate democrats from the process.
But the meeting which was to occur on Tuesday to discuss the current reference base of policies was canceled, said a democratic source of the Senate with knowledge of the issue.
The head of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, RS.D., dodged a question from NBC News on Tuesday as to whether the Republicans would accept the decision of the parliamentarian on the issue.
“We are in conversations, as you know, with the parliamentarian on the best way to obtain a budget reconciliation that we are trying to accomplish on the finish line,” he said. “We believe that the law is very clear. And finally, the chairman of the budget committee takes this determination. Obviously, we regularly consult the parliamentarian on the best way to achieve the desired result here, and it is to pass a bill of reconciliation which achieves all the objectives that my colleagues have alluded. “
The Senate Republicans hope to have a vote this week on a new budgetary resolution which uses this basic base, which would unlock the way to adopt Trump’s agenda on taxes, financing the application of immigration and other questions.
Democrats have said that the ignorance of the parliamentarian on the budgetary process would be a destroyed way of eliminating the filibusier, as it would remove the long -standing constraints from the legislation which bypassing the 60 vote, such as the requirement for discounts of spending or other savings.
The head of the Senate minority, Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., warned the leaders of the GOP against the observation of the parliamentarian.
“It would be nuclear,” he said. “And this shows that the Republicans are so determined to give these tax relief to the billionaires that they are ready to break the rules, the standards and the things they have promised that they would not do.”
The node of the problem for the Republicans is that the extension of Trump’s tax cuts in 2017 would cost $ 4.6 billions over a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and they cannot make these tax relief permanent without paying them.
But they have no hope of finding so much money in compensation. So, instead, they want to use a new method called “Current Policy Baseline” to mark the cost of constantly putting these tax alternatives from 2017 to $ 0, canceling the need to pay them after their expiration at the end of this year.
A familiar source with the thought of the Senate republicans said that it “always discussed the most effective path”, and that the basic procedure for current policy to mark tax reductions – without contribution from the parliamentarian – is part of this discussion.
Senator Thom Tillis, RN.C., said that if they could not use the revised baseline, “this probably reduces our options” for legislation and could force them to negotiate with Democrats on certain questions.
“If we are going to be more constrained, then you have to look at the heart of what we need to do, compared to Beaux-Haves who could simply take more time, maybe obtain democratic support,” said Tillis in an interview.
A spokesman for the Senate Budget Committee called for this “alarming” and said that it shows that “Republicans think they don’t need to defend their efforts to hide the real cost of their tax gifts of several billion dollars that will add billions of tickets to national debt while withdrawing working families.”
“The base of current policy is budgetary fraud” and “upsets decades from previous,” said the spokesperson.
Kate Santaliz And Frank Thorp V contributed.
