The Republicans of the Senate warm up at the limit of debt in their party bill

Washington – The Senate Republicans warm up at the idea of ​​including an increase in the debt ceiling in their Large line of the line To advance President Donald Trump’s agenda.

The head of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, RS.D., told Republican senators that he was now open to the limit of debt in a wider range of expenses, according to a familiar source with his conversations. This is a change for Thune in the sense of a budgetary plan adopted by the Republicans of the Chamber, which included an increase in the debt of 4 billions of dollars.

The separate budgetary plan of the Senate, on the other hand, avoided the question, one of the many major conflicts between the two measures to finance Trump’s political priorities. But now, while the Trump administration pushes the rooms to solve their differences, some Republican senators modify their melody after initially preferred to answer the question of the debt limit separately.

“I also warm up,” said senator Todd Young, R-Ind., Told NBC News to increase the debt limit for the bill.

Young said he wanted a tax commission or a “usable plan” to tackle long-term solvency problems of health insurance and social security, claiming that it would be “unacceptable” to go through the budgetary process “and not to commit to turning them”.

Senator Jim Justice, RW.VA., said that he could “vot” possibly “for an increase in the debt limit in the bill, but he wanted discounts of spending next door.

Thune also told members that he favors a budgetary compromise resolution with the Chamber which could be voted during the week of April 7, another important concession after the GOP senators had indicated earlier that the two chambers would adopt distinct bills and negotiate later.

The president of the Senate Budget Committee, Lindsey Graham, RS.C., said that he was working on a new budgetary resolution which he would take directly to the ground without holding an audience. And Senator Kevin Cramer, RN.D., said that voting in the full Senate could occur next week.

The Trump administration seeks to resolve the differences between the 340 billion dollar budgetary plan, which addresses immigration, military and energy policy, and the chamber plan, which includes 4.5 billions of dollars in tax discounts in addition to solving these problems.

The secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, held on Tuesday a meeting with the economic advisor of the White House, Kevin Hassett, Thune, the president of the Chamber Mike Johnson, R-La., And the chairs of the two tax writing, the Senator Mike Crapo, R-Assaho, and the representative Jason Smith, R-MO.

After the meeting, Thune told journalists that there was “a consensus that arises” at the idea of ​​adding a debt limit hike to the bill, saying that it is “clearly a preferable result”.

“It was a very constructive and productive conversation, and in a way perfected on the latest problems that we must decide,” he said.

In a new report Released on Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office has provided that the deadline for legislators to act on the debt ceiling or the risk of default of American obligations will probably be in August or September.

“CBO believes that if the debt limit remains unchanged, the government’s ability to borrow using extraordinary measures ” established will probably be exhausted in August or September 2025,” said the report, while warning that the “date X” could be from May or June, depending on collections and tax expenditure.

The official deadline will be fixed by the Treasury Department.

Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, said that he was ready to accept the increase in $ 4 billions of the House in the bill, but wanted expenses cut there. And he said that a delay could help put pressure on the congress to act.

“We don’t do things without a deadline,” he said.

If the leaders of the Republican Congress wanted to increase the debt ceiling in a separate bill, they would need democratic support to cross the threshold of 60 votes in the Senate. By trying to include it in the “reconciliation” bill, they could adopt it with simple majorities in the chamber and the Senate led by the GOP.

But increase the debt ceiling with only republican votes dozens of legislators who have never voted to increase the borrowing limit. Hard -Liners Conservatives say they opened it – if the congress can reduce expenses to the tune of billions of dollars.

It also turns out to be a challenge. The budgetary resolution of the Chamber requires that the Energy and Trade Committee reduces the expenses of $ 880 billion, but the CBO said it was Impossible to reach this target without cutting health insurance or medicaid by hundreds of billions of dollars. And some Republicans in Swing districts have expressed reluctance to reduce Medicaid.

After Tuesday’s meeting, Crapo refused to say if they discussed what to do with Medicare or Medicaid, saying to journalists: “I’m not talking about what’s going on during my meetings.”

In addition, there is the question of how to make Trump’s expired tax reductions, which would cost about 4.6 dollars over a decade. The rules of the Senate budget oblige the congress to pay tax cuts in order to make them permanent, but the Republicans have no hope of finding savings at this level. So, instead, they are Taking on a new accounting technique To fix the cost of extending these tax relief to zero dollar, a decision that the Democrats insist that they will fight.

But this is a delicate situation for the Republicans, because they will not know if this new accounting method will be authorized until they vote to adopt a new budget that uses it. The Senate parliamentarian, the internal arbitrator who establishes disputes within the framework of the budgetary process, will have to reign over it.

“Well, that will not happen before you have an invoice,” said Graham. “She cannot reign over a hypothetical case, right? So, we will have to move the bill, the resolution, then she will tell us.”

Bessent said that the solidification of Trump’s tax reductions in 2017 is a priority.

“The American people have given this administration a clear mandate to restore the prosperity of our country-taxes more and more, larger pay checks and a stronger economy,” he said. “I devote myself to working with the Congress to make historic tax discounts by Permanent Trump and rekindle the American dream. Today’s productive meeting gives me the confidence that a quick time is achievable. ”