Senate GOP looking for budget deal for tax overhaul
Pushing toward the Republicans' prime goal of tax legislation, the GOP Senate leader and members of the Budget Committee are scrambling to come up with a budget deal to clear the way for the first tax overhaul in three decades.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and GOP members of the Budget Committee are meeting Tuesday with President Trump's Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and economic chief Gary Cohn to plot breaking the budget stalemate.
Lack of a budget plan for the 2018 fiscal year starting Oct. 1 is a roadblock to the must-do legislation overhauling the tax system that Republicans and President Donald Trump have made their highest priority.
Under Washington's complicated ways, passing a congressional budget blueprint is the only way to set in motion a special process for rewriting the tax code. If Congress can pass a budget, Republicans controlling the Senate don't need to worry about a Democratic filibuster blocking any tax bill.
House action has been held up by a battle between moderates and conservatives over whether to pair spending cuts with the filibuster-proof tax measure. Senate action has been on hold while the House struggles.
An impasse could doom the tax overhaul effort.
On the budget panel, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., is hoping to limit the deficit cost of the tax effort, while Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., is on the other end of the spectrum favoring more robust deficit-financed tax cuts. GOP leaders have asked them to try to craft an agreement among the 12 budget panel Republicans. Any Republican defection on the budget plan would deadlock the narrowly divided committee.
"I'm a fiscal hawk, OK? I believe in pro-growth tax reform and I believe that's a mechanism toward lowering deficits," Corker said Monday. "But I'm also someone who wants to be realistic about all of this, and not let this just be party time that takes us no place but massive deficits down the road."
Revamping the nation's tax system and providing relief for the middle class is a Republican mission in the wake of the collapse of efforts to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama's health care law. Mr. Trump has made it a pillar of his push for economic growth.
At his most recent tax-driven speech in Missouri, billed as a "tax reform kickoff", Mr. Trump was vauge on details as to what the administration's approach will be exactly to overhauling the entire system, another campaign promise he has yet show for with tangible results.
The president stuck to basic talking points, pushing for simplifying the tax code, providing tax relief to middle class families and cutting the corporate tax rate, but has provided very little insight into how the administration will drive the conversation in the House and Senate.