Politico daily e-mail says both Ryan and McConell have said it's happening but they don't have inks
Posted by
spamlet
Dec 13 '16, 07:26
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They often only link to their Pro stuff anyway so not a great loss. Report below.
MAKE THAT TWO: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell all but made it official on Monday - Congress will do two budget resolutions next year, and the second effort at reconciliation will be aimed at tax reform.
McConnell said the second budget would come "later in the spring," but as our Brian Faler noted, the majority leader didn't give many clues about when a reconciliation tax measure might be ready to go. (He also sounded a little skeptical about the sort of big infrastructure deal that President-elect Donald Trump has been floating.)
That means both House and Senate GOP leaders have signaled that reconciliation, which can't be filibustered in the Senate, is the best path for tax reform. Speaker Paul Ryan made it clear in a Fox News interview late last week that he was proceeding as if reconciliation would be necessary - which would mean, among other things, that tax reform would have to be deficit-neutral and would come with an expiration date.
As Bloomberg notes, using reconciliation for tax reform would basically fly in the face of Trump's wishes, given he frequently bragged about offering huge tax cuts. (It probably should be noted that the Trump camp has given some conflicting signals on that front.) Other key Republicans have said they want to at least feel out Democrats on tax reform, and Democrats have said they'd be willing to talk about a narrower tax-and-infrastructure deal. But it also seems like it would be difficult for the more comprehensive tax reform approach that McConnell and Ryan talked up to get 60 votes in the Senate.
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