


The administration pressures the Senate to follow through on its self-imposed July 4 deadline for advancing the bill to the president’s desk.
Today at 4 p.m., President Donald Trump will hold a White House event featuring “everyday Americans from across the country that benefit — not only from the massive tax cuts — but from the many different provisions” in the reconciliation bill, a White House official confirmed to National Review. The event is yet another sign that the administration is pressuring the Senate to follow through on its self-imposed July 4 deadline for advancing the bill to the president’s desk.
This afternoon’s event’s speakers are set to highlight the legislative provisions that Trump and his team are most eager to highlight ahead of the midterms: temporary tax exemptions for tips and overtime pay, more border security funding, and an extension of his 2017 tax cuts.
“While Democrats have attempted to falsely frame this bill as a tax cut for the rich, it’s actually a boon for working Americans,” the official told National Review. “Any Democrat or Republican that votes against the bill is voting for a massive tax HIKE on everyday Americans.”
Right now, Senate Republicans are embroiled in heated disagreements surrounding the bill’s price tag as well as controversial provisions involving Medicaid, green-energy tax credit phaseouts, and the state and local tax deduction. Senate Republicans must be mindful that whatever clears the upper chamber must then clear the House, which passed a different version of the bill last month.
Complicating matters further, the nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, ruled that some of the bill’s provisions do not clear the Byrd rule. This arcane rule limits what lawmakers can pass through budget reconciliation — a process that allows lawmakers to skirt the upper chamber’s 60-vote threshold for passing legislation. According to Senate Democrats, the parliamentarian ruled that out-of-bounds provisions include Senate-drafted language that would tweak the provider tax as well as language that would reduce Medicaid funding to states that provide coverage to illegal immigrants.
Senate Republicans can ignore or overrule the parliamentarian. Some GOP senators, including Roger Marshall of Kansas and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, are already calling for her to be fired. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune has repeatedly pledged that he has no intention of overruling the parliamentarian, which means that Senate Republicans will need to revise the bill’s language before they charge ahead with a vote. If they go that route, they will need to find new spending cuts, since the aforementioned Medicaid provisions helped offset other costly portions of the bill, including the 2017 tax cut extension, expensing permanency, increased border security and defense spending, and temporary tax exemptions for overtime pay and tips.