Senate GOP maps July 4 "stretch" goal
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Sens. John Thune and Mike Crapo at Capitol Hill on Feb. 16, 2022. Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Monday sketched an ambitious timetable for passing a compromise budget bill, telling members of the Finance Committee they need to move quickly to meet a July 4 deadline for President Trump's signature.
Why it matters: Pens need to be put down soon. Thune (R-S.D.) is signaling to his conference that debating and drafting will need to end in order to meet their deadline.
- "The leadership is going to try to hit the president's goal of getting this done by July 4, which means things are going to have to move much faster," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters.
- Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), said the target was for the Finance Committee to get a draft out by the end of the week, describing that as "a stretch goal."
Zoom in: There are still deep concerns in the GOP conference about both the ratio of tax and spending cuts, Medicaid spending and which green energy tax cuts to preserve — and for how long.
- "I didn't hear the leader say no to anybody," Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said after the meeting.
- "Part of what we have to do is just come to agreement on, you know, what's core," Tillis said.
Zoom out: Senators expect the White House to get more involved and help them resolve their differences in the coming days. Thune met with Trump today.
- The president also spoke to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) who claimed Trump "said again, NO MEDICAID BENEFIT CUTS," on X.
- Johnson, who also said he spoke with Trump, told reporters before the meeting: "I still think that this thing has to be a multi-step process."
Between the lines: Senate GOPers have for months been telegraphing some of the policy changes they want to make on taxes.
- It's long been a goal of Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) to make three provisions of Trump's 2017 tax bill — R&D deduction, bonus depreciation and interest expensing — permanent.
- They expire after five years in the House version.
- And there's a desire to lower the $40,000 SALT deduction that blue-state House Republicans fought so hard to include in their version.
The bottom line: The Joint Committee on Taxation put its latest estimate at $3.8 trillion for how much the tax cuts in the House-passed bill will cost. That's roughly $20 billion less than their earlier forecast.
- That gives the Senate a little more breathing room to make changes but not much to stay under the House's $4 trillion limit.
