Key senators announce budget resolution deal, but details are sparse

Senators Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), key members of the Senate Budget Committee who were at odds over deficit spending, announced a deal for a budget resolution that would pave the way for tax reform, though they left out key details.

“I am confident the budget agreement I have reached with Chairman [Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.)] and Senator Corker will give the Finance Committee the headroom needed to write a pro-growth tax plan that reforms the code, causes the economy to surge, and ultimately results in reduced federal budget deficits,” Toomey said in a statement.

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The budget resolution outlines the parameters of a procedure called reconciliation, which allows the Senate to sidestep a filibuster under certain conditions.

The announcement, however, did not include many new details of the agreement, stating only that the resolution “would allow for a tax reduction, as scored on a static basis, over a 10-year period.”

Notably absent was a figure for how much of a tax cut would be allowed, a key point of contention.

Earlier reports had Toomey gunning for a $2 trillion tax cut over a decade, while Corker wanted to ensure deficit neutrality. 

The agreement had purportedly been set at $1.5 trillion in cuts, an amount Corker said was only being included to give leeway to tax writers. 

He would be hard-pressed to vote for a tax reform bill that would increase the deficit, he said.

The resolution may be taken up by the committee in the next week or two, Corker said, depending on the fate of the latest attempt to repeal ObamaCare.