BUDGET/TAXES: “The Senate Budget Committee on Friday [9-29-17] formally unveiled a 2018 budget blueprint that would shield a tax cut of as much as $1.5 trillion from a Democratic filibuster — and could pave the way to opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling.
The budget resolution is a critical step for President Trump and Republican lawmakers as they move ahead with their plan to overhaul the tax code. By allowing for tax cuts that cost as much as $1.5 trillion over the next decade, the blueprint would ease the pressure on lawmakers to close loopholes and enact other changes to make up for the revenue lost by slashing taxes.
The document does foresee a balanced budget within 10 years — but only by projecting higher economic growth than nonpartisan forecasts and assuming unspecified spending cuts.
The budget resolution, essentially a blueprint for taxation and federal spending for the fiscal year that begins Sunday, lays the groundwork for approving a tax bill using special procedures that would shield it from a Democratic filibuster. Republicans, who have only 52 seats in the Senate, used the same strategy in their failed effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.”
-Thomas Kaplan, “Senate Unveils Budget Blueprint Allowing $1.5 Trillion in Tax Cuts,” The New York Times online, Sept. 29, 2017