By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senate Republicans planned a first step on Thursday toward advancing President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax cut agenda with a procedural vote that will test party unity in the face of concerns that it does not include sufficient spending cuts.
Nonpartisan analysts estimate that the measure, which also addresses Trump’s calls for tighter border enforcement and increased military spending, could add $5.8 trillion to the federal government’s debt over the next decade.
The vote comes a day after the White House assured congressional Republicans that Trump supported their desire to include deep spending cuts in the bill.
The Senate Budget Committee plan estimates the cost of extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, as well as delivering on sweeping new promises to eliminate taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security retirement payments, at $1.5 trillion over a decade. That is far below the $4.5 trillion cost estimated in a blueprint that passed the House in February.
Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a fiscal hawk, has indicated that he may oppose the measure because it calls for a $5 trillion increase in the borrowing limit on the $36.6 trillion debt. But other hardliners have since signaled their support.
Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who warned over the weekend that the measure could not move forward without a commitment to lower spending levels, said he expected to support it following White House assurances.
“I think I’ve got that commitment now,” Johnson told Reuters.
In a rare show of dissent, four Senate Republicans joined all the chamber’s Democrats in voting on a measure intended to stop Trump from imposing fresh tariffs on Canadian imports. The measure is not expected to be taken up by the House.
The Senate and House must pass a budget blueprint to unlock a parliamentary tool known as budget reconciliation, which would allow Republicans to bypass the objections of Senate Democrats.
The Senate blueprint seeks to move toward hardliners by offering an aspirational goal of cutting $2 trillion in spending from domestic programs that increased during the COVID pandemic.
But Republicans in the House of Representatives, which would also need to pass the framework, have voiced skepticism, citing enforceable spending-cut goals that seek only a few billion dollars in spending reductions.
Democrats have warned that lawmakers will have a hard time achieving their $2 trillion spending-cut goal without cutting deeply into the Medicaid health insurance plan for low-income Americans.
The Senate and House estimates of the measures’ cost differ because Senate Republicans intend to use a controversial approach that claims extending the 2017 tax cuts will not add to the nation’s debt.
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated the Senate budget measure could add about $5.8 trillion to the U.S. debt in the next decade.
Nonpartisan budget analysts have estimated that adopting all of Trump’s tax proposals could cost up to $11 trillion.
(Reporting by David Morgan in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Matthew Lewis)
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