Senate Finance Committee staff is expected to meet Monday with Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, with Republicans and Democrats presenting competing cases for whether health provisions of the pending GOP megabill comply with the chamber’s rules for party-line budget legislation.
That means the critical debate over trillions of dollars worth of proposed GOP tax cuts won’t happen with MacDonough until Tuesday, according to a Senate Democratic aide who was granted anonymity to share details of the private meetings.
Democrats will attempt to strip out a number of provisions from the legislation, arguing that they don’t meet the criteria for the filibuster-skirting reconciliation process. Among their many targets are provisions that would loosen regulations and eliminate taxes on firearm silencers and certain kinds of rifles and shotguns, the aide said.
Democrats will also target GOP provisions that establish a new certification system for tax credits for low- and middle-income workers. Democrats also want to strip out a generous new tax credit for donations to private school scholarships, the aide said.
Lastly, Democrats will raise a “long list” of issues associated with Republicans’ use of a new accounting method for their tax legislation, which would zero out the cost of extending trillions of expiring tax cuts from the GOP’s 2017 tax bill. The debate over the so-called current policy baseline will be consequential, with Democrats likely to sound the alarm that the unprecedented use of the maneuver would entirely erode long-standing budget rules.
