Note to the House GOP
As you guys convene in Florida today for your retreat, I know you are realizing there are probably going to be two bills, not one, to accomplish Trump’s agenda and preserve tax cuts.
Because of the rules, you’ll have to get past the Byrd Rule in the Senate for reconciliation.1 But before you can even do that, you’ll have to get ownership from very diverse interests.
I have one important caution for you.
If it appears you cannot make progress, or that you keep setting yourselves back internally, you will begin to negatively affect the economy. Small businesses and big businesses alike will begin to lack confidence. Even if you ultimately are able to pass something by the end of the year, those businesses will have begun pivoting to presume their taxes will be negatively impacted. That will then cause economic headwinds headed into the midterms and you will be blamed.
Tariffs too could cause those headwinds and you’ll be blamed.
But, if you show real progress and unity even as you will have disagreements, you won’t spook businesses and Wall Street.
Deficit Hawks and SALT guys must be placated. Surely there are compromises to be had. I would recommend you take Congresswoman Kat Cammack’s REINS Act seriously.
That legislation would require that Congress pass legislation to approve any regulation that causes an economic impact of $100 million or more. It is common sense, would return power to Congress, and would lower the regulatory burden on American businesses.
That last part is very important because if you cannot cut the debt as much as you want, cutting regulatory costs will help the economy offset the growth of public debt.
Surely there must be a way to structure it smartly to get past the Byrd Rule and tie it to the larger tax package. Combining both tax cuts and regulatory reform through the REINS Act would show the private sector that Republicans really are serious about economic productivity in the private sector.
Good luck and don’t kill each other down there.
The Byrd Rule is a very arcane parliamentary procedure in the Senate that allows legislation to bypass the filibuster if the legislation reduces the debt. There are four parts to it and the Senate Parliamentarians is the arbiter of compliance. But once a year, the Senate can pass budgetary legislation that bypasses the filibuster if the Byrd Rule is met. Under Chuck Schumer’s precedent two years ago, arguably, the Senate can do it twice in a year.
We learned a long time ago that what the Republicans say they will do and what they actually do is often two different things. The voters want unity and responsible spending. Let’s start with that.
1. Congress must get back to the business of passing an actual budget. Not another continuing resolution.
2. We need a hard look at the actual priorities and prioritization in the budget. National defense has to be priority 1. Rank the others in order, and the lower priority items, especially non-critical, we should consider cutting out altogether.
3. The federal bureaucracy has become too large and to concentrated in high standard of living areas. Moving to lower cost of living locations could allow for reduced salary expenditures