Punchbowl News: Can Senate Republicans pull off permanent tax cuts?

President Donald Trump dealt Senate Republicans a blow Wednesday in the seemingly never-ending struggle over how to move his agenda on Capitol Hill. Trump sided with the House GOP’s reconciliation roadmap right as the Senate began floor consideration of its own plan.

However Congress decides to package top GOP priorities — one bill, two bills — Senate Republicans are gearing up for an arguably more consequential fight on the substance of the legislation.

Senate GOP leaders have drawn a red line on the need to make the expiring 2017 Trump tax cuts permanent. That’s not feasible under the House’s budget resolution, which would give the tax committees $4.5 trillion of room for tax cuts.

It doesn’t include a “current policy baseline,” which Republicans view as the only realistic way to make the Trump tax cuts permanent. This scoring method would consider extensions of existing tax policy cost-free and get around Senate reconciliation rules that otherwise end up requiring big offsets down the line.

So can Senate Republicans secure that victory?

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