Scoring Trump's Policy Plans Through First Weeks of Administration

Phillip Swagel, director of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, discusses working with congressional committees to figure out the numbers behind tax cut and spending plans

Senate Democrats plan to spend hours this week repeating a concise, anti-billionaire message criticizing Republicans’ budget plan.

The upcoming budget “vote-a-rama” — likely Thursday night into Friday morning — will give Democrats the chance to force votes on dozens of amendments and hammer Republicans for favoring the wealthy in the budget framework for GOP tax and spending plans. The marathon session is a rare chance for the minority party to exert power over the reconciliation process immune to filibuster.

“We’ll be very active, and I’ll certainly make the point that those at the very top can pretty much pay little or no taxes for years on end,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) told reporters Tuesday, previewing a slogan targeting the ultra-wealthy’s ability to avoid income taxes. “They just use three words — buy, borrow, and die.”

In reality, the vote wouldn’t directly call for tax cuts and trillions in corresponding offsets, putting off those decisions until later in the year. The budget framework calls for spending $175 billion on border and immigration, $150 billion for defense, and $20 billion for energy. It doesn’t mention tax cuts.

But Congress is buzzing with anticipation for a broad House Republican budget that does include tax cuts, and Senate Democrats are seizing on the budget debate to attack it.

“The Republican plan makes massive spending cuts for the programs families depend on, in order to fund tax breaks for mega-millionaires,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) told reporters Tuesday, describing the main thrust of Democrats’ amendments. He called the GOP plan “a massive betrayal of American families.”

It’s not unusual for senators to offer hundreds of amendments and then spend the night voting on a few dozen of them. Democrats haven’t said how many measures they’ll offer, but they do plan to drag things out.

“You’ll see a lot of amendments,” Merkley, the top Democrat on the Budget Committee, told reporters.

Republicans rejected a spate of Democratic amendments during a Budget Committee markup last week — a preview of the vote-a-rama.

Democrats warned about cuts to Medicaid and nutrition aid, criticized a Pentagon spending boost, and tried to restrain President Donald Trump’s ability to unilaterally hold up funds. Republicans rejected those amendments and specifically say they’re not seeking changes to Medicaid.

The House is in recess this week, but the Senate’s decision to move ahead with its own plan drew some jabs. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in a post on X the House’s budget “implements President Trump’s FULL America first agenda, not just parts of it with promises to come back later for the rest.”

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