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Senate GOP embraces controversial tax cut strategy
Source: Axios
3 hours ago
Senate Republicans are fully embracing the strategy of plowing ahead on President Trump's "one, big beautiful bill" by bypassing the parliamentarian on a crucial accounting matter.
Why it matters: Senate leadership and Trump want to make the 2017 tax cuts permanent without having to account for how much it would add to the deficit. Now, they're saying all they need is for Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to decide that's what they're going to do.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) backed the the argument, laid out by Graham, that Republicans don't need the Senate parliamentarian to bless the current policy approach during Tuesday's Senate GOP lunch. Graham is expected to release the language of the budget resolution as soon as Tuesday, according to GOP Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.). Senate leadership wants to move forward with a vote on the resolution this week.
Between the lines: There already have been early conversations with the parliamentarian about the current policy baseline idea.
Democrats have been pushing back hard against the idea in their meetings with the parliamentarian, and there had been expectation of a bipartisan meeting on the topic on Tuesday. Republicans are now saying they don't need her input at all.
What they're saying: "We think the law is very clear and ultimately the Budget Committee chairman makes that determination," Thune told reporters after the lunch.
"It's not a ruling by the parliamentarian. The Budget Chair gets to decide which baseline to use," Barrasso said, echoing Thune. "The power resides in the chairman of the budget committee," said Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) after the lunch. "That's precedent."
Read more: https://www.axios.com/2025/04/01/senate-budget-tax-cuts-current-policy-graham
They are just making up shit now. The use of the "reconciliation" process most CERTAINLY requires the Parliamentarian to confirm what can and cannot be added. Otherwise they can't use that tool. And no one has repealed the "Byrd Rule".
During the first several years' experience with reconciliation, the legislation contained many provisions that were extraneous to the purpose of implementing budget resolution policies. The reconciliation submissions of committees included provisions that had no budgetary effect, that increased spending or reduced revenues when the reconciliation instructions called for reduced spending or increased revenues, or that violated another committee's jurisdiction.
In 1985 and 1986, the Senate adopted the Byrd rule (named after its principal sponsor, Senator Robert C. Byrd) on a temporary basis as a means of curbing these practices. The Byrd rule was extended and modified several times over the years. In 1990, the Byrd rule was incorporated into the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 as Section 313 and made permanent (2 U.S.C. 644).
In 1985 and 1986, the Senate adopted the Byrd rule (named after its principal sponsor, Senator Robert C. Byrd) on a temporary basis as a means of curbing these practices. The Byrd rule was extended and modified several times over the years. In 1990, the Byrd rule was incorporated into the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 as Section 313 and made permanent (2 U.S.C. 644).
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Perhaps they could have bypassed the parliamentarian and we could have e passed a law that would ha e prevented the entire shitstorm we are in? 
