President Donald Trump’s top legislative priority took a major step forward as the Senate narrowly approved a budget vehicle for tax cuts -- but sharp divides over an array of non-binding amendments revealed the towering challenge he faces from here.
Senator Rand Paul split from the GOP to vote against the budget resolution, which squeaked by on an all-Republican vote of 51-49 Thursday night and unlocked the Senate’s special procedure to pass a tax bill with only 50 votes. Paul objected to a provision to raise military spending by $43 billion, and also broke with his party by voting with Democrats against an amendment to reduce the state and local tax deduction, which could raise tax bills for some.
“Rather than bicker over raising tax on some people and lowering taxes on other people, we should cut everyone’s taxes,” the Kentucky senator said. He has insisted that no middle-class taxes go up, a high bar for a complex bill to meet.
Amendments that were offered during a so-called vote-a-rama revealed a sharply divided Senate that leaves Republican leaders with few votes to spare in order to claim their first big legislative victory in the Trump administration. Still, GOP senators united to defeat Democratic measures that would have slapped restrictions on the yet-to-be-written bill to prevent higher deficits, block tax cuts for the top 1 percent of earners, and bar any tax hikes on incomes under $250,000.
Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, a retiring Republican who has recently feuded with Trump, voted to advance the budget resolution, which allows a tax bill to raise the deficit by up to $1.5 trillion.
But Corker has said his support for the budget resolution was merely to satisfy Senate rules, and he declared in a statement after the vote that he wants to make sure the tax bill “does not add to the deficit, sets rates that are permanent in nature, and closes a minimum of $4 trillion in loopholes and special interest deductions.” He added that he’d support “reasonable” assumptions about economic growth stemming from tax changes.
‘Millionaires and Billionaires’
Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate Republican, opposed the 1 percent amendment, but said she supports a tax on “millionaires and billionaires.” (The top 1 percent of earners begins roughly at $500,000 a year.) Collins has also opposed repeal of the estate tax in the past, unlike the GOP framework. But she said she’s ready to begin the debate.
“I actually think it’s possible to put together a bipartisan bill,” Collins said. “I don’t know a single American who likes the tax code.”
Still, the prospects for bipartisanship appear slim. In the end, not a single Democrat voted for the final budget measure.