By Richard Cowan and Bo Erickson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senate Republicans on Monday will try to pass President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-cut and spending bill, despite divisions within the party about its expected $3.3 trillion hit to the nation’s debt pile.
They were set for a marathon session in which the minority Democrats are allowed to offer an unlimited number of votes, part of the arcane process Republicans are using to bypass Senate rules that normally require 60 of the chamber’s 100 members to agree on legislation.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released its assessment on Sunday of the bill’s hit to the $36.2 trillion debt, figuring that it would add about $800 billion more than the version passed last month in the House of Representatives.
Many Republicans dispute that claim, contending that extending existing policy will not add to the debt. Nonetheless, international bond investors see incentives to diversify out of the U.S. Treasury market.
Democrats, meanwhile, hope the latest, eye-widening figure could stoke enough anxiety among fiscally minded conservatives to get them to buck their party, which controls both chambers of Congress.
“Republicans are doing something the Senate has never, never done before, deploying fake math and accounting gimmicks to hide the true cost of the bill,” Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Sunday. “Republicans are about to pass the single most expensive bill in U.S. history to give tax breaks to billionaires while taking away Medicaid, SNAP benefits and good-paying jobs for millions of people.”
The Senate narrowly advanced the tax-cut, immigration, border and military spending bill in a procedural vote late on Saturday, voting 51-49 to open debate on the 940-page megabill.
One powerful illustration of the Republican divide came on Sunday when Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina said he would not seek re-election, after Trump threatened to back a challenger to him in next year’s midterm elections over his vote against the bill.
Trump on social media has hailed the progress as a “great victory” for his “great, big, beautiful bill.” In a separate post on Sunday, he said: “We will make it all up, times 10, with GROWTH, more than ever before.”
Trump wants the bill passed before the July 4 Independence Day holiday. While that deadline is one of choice, lawmakers will face a far more serious deadline later this summer when they must raise the nation’s self-imposed debt ceiling or risk a devastating default.
If the Senate succeeds in passing the bill, it will then go to the House, where members are also divided, with some angry about its cost and others worried about cuts to the Medicaid program. Republicans can afford to lose no more than three votes in either chamber to pass a bill the Democrats are united in opposition to.
HITS TO BENEFITS
The legislation was the sole focus of a marathon weekend congressional session marked by political drama, division and lengthy delays as Democrats seek to slow the legislation’s path to passage.
Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, the other Republican “no” vote, opposed the legislation because it would raise the federal borrowing limit by an additional $5 trillion.
The megabill would extend the 2017 tax cuts that were Trump’s main legislative achievement during his first term as president, cut other taxes and boost spending on the military and border security.
Senate Republicans, who reject the CBO’s estimates on the cost of the legislation, are set on using an alternative calculation method that does not factor in costs from extending the 2017 tax cuts. Outside tax experts, like Andrew Lautz from the nonpartisan think tank Bipartisan Policy Center, call it a “magic trick.”
Using this calculation method, the Senate Republicans’ budget bill appears to cost substantially less and seems to save $500 billion, according to the BPC analysis.
(Editing by Scott Malone and Mark Porter)
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