Battle over tax cut scoring method intensifies

Democrats Make Case Against Scoring Method

The fight over a controversial scoring method for tax cuts is heating up.

Senate Democratic staff on Monday met with the chamber’s parliamentarian to argue against Republicans’ plan to score an extension of expiring provisions in the 2017 tax law as a continuation of “current policy” rather than “current law.” Use of the current policy baseline would essentially zero out the several trillion dollar cost of extending the tax cuts.

“This is nothing other than budget fraud,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Senate Budget ...