>
Article snippet: WASHINGTON — The Senate Budget Committee unveiled a 2018 budget blueprint on Friday that would open the door for a $1.5 trillion tax cut, even as an independent analysis concluded that the plan as offered would far exceed that price tag and overwhelmingly benefit corporations and the rich. The budget resolution could also pave the way to opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling, a hot-button Republican proposal that has languished for decades. Passing a budget resolution would be a critical step for President Trump and Republican lawmakers in moving forward with their plan to overhaul the tax code. The parliamentary language in the resolution would allow Republicans to pass tax cuts that cost as much as $1.5 trillion over the next decade with only 50 votes in the Senate, not the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster. Republican leaders concede that without a budget, there will be no tax cut. But the analysis released on Friday by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center could change the politics of tax cutting and make even 50 votes a struggle in a Senate with 52 Republicans. The report estimated that the tax cuts that Republicans are considering would cost the government $2.4 trillion over 10 years — which would worsen budget deficits by considerably more than $1.5 trillion — while showering benefits on the wealthy. In the first detailed assessment of the plan’s financial impact, the analysis found that the average tax bill for all income grou... Link to the full article to read more