The Republican Tax Bills Are About to Shrink
When Republicans in the House and Senate unveiled their tax bills to great fanfare over the last two weeks, they glossed over a small but critical detail: Neither of them, as written, can pass Congress with GOP votes alone.
Both proposals are over-budget, analysts say, and would require significant revisions to abide by Senate procedural rules. Republicans likely will adjust their plan by making some of the biggest tax cuts expire in the next decade, a change that limits the legislation’s potential for economic growth and would force lawmakers to confront potential tax increases years in the future.
To circumvent a Democratic filibuster in the Senate, Republicans they used when they tried, the tax bill can add up to $1.5 trillion to the deficit in the first decade after its enactment, but it cannot add anything to the deficit in the years following that. The rule is named for the late Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, the long-serving Democrat known for his parliamentary expertise.
