(Dan McCaleb, The Center Square) The U.S. Senate passed a budget framework early Saturday that would extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act from President Donald Trump’s first term and raise the debt ceiling by up to $5 trillion. It also would increase spending for border security and national defense.
The 51-48 vote through the reconciliation process was largely along party lines. Two Republicans split from their party and voted against the package – U.S. Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine.
The reconciliation process allows Republicans to avoid a Democrat filibuster and requires only a simple majority vote – 51 instead of 60 – to pass.
Democrats tried to add a series of amendments during the marathon overnight voting session, none of them successful.
In one amendment, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer took aim at Trump’s sweeping reciprocal tariffs, announced Wednesday. It failed to pass. Another targeted the president’s new Department of Government Efficiency. It also failed to pass.
One controversial aspect of the framework treats the first-term Trump tax cuts as a current policy baseline, or a continuation of current law. That allows Republicans to zero out the future cost of the tax cuts and reduce the amount of expense reductions needed to offset the actual costs. Conservatives in the U.S. House, which passed its own, similar resolution, have called that a budget gimmick.
It remains unclear if the Republican majority in the House will get in line and pass the Senate’s version.
“Tonight, the Senate took one small step toward reconciliation and one giant leap toward making the tax cuts permanent, securing the border, providing much-needed help for the military and finally cutting wasteful Washington spending,” U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham, R. SC, wrote on X after the vote. “Well done.”
