Senate Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham unveiled the text of a compromise budget blueprint Wednesday that’s designed to pave the way for a major reconciliation package offering tax cuts, border security and defense funding and more.
The measure would punt, for now, on the overall size of offsetting spending cuts, but the text clearly states a preference for a minimum $2 trillion in cuts over 10 years. Given the difficulty of achieving that hefty figure, however, the document provides a huge amount of wiggle room to go lower than that and still meet the Senate’s “Byrd rule” requirements for what can go into a filibuster-proof reconciliation bill.
And the draft budget resolution would provide enough fiscal headroom in the Senate to make permanent the 2017 tax cuts that expire after this year, while offering new tax breaks sought by President Donald Trump, such as exempting tips and overtime pay from income tax. The budget appears to carve out room for more than $5.2 trillion in tax cuts overall, including a $1.5 trillion cost ceiling on new provisions that weren’t part of the 2017 law.
