Republicans are set to make the audacious play of bypassing the Senate parliamentarian and moving forward with a budget resolution based on a scoring baseline set by Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) that would allow them to argue extending President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts won’t add to the deficit.

Senate Republicans are being careful to say they won’t “overrule” the parliamentarian — the Senate’s procedural umpire — but Democrats are already accusing Republicans of going “nuclear” by flouting the Senate’s rules and precedents.

“We think the law is very clear and ultimately the budget committee chairman makes that determination,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters Tuesday, arguing Graham has the authority to decide whether extending the Trump tax cuts would add to the deficit and need to be offset by big spending cuts or revenue-raising proposals.

The stakes are high as the outcome could determine the size of the tax relief package passed by the Republican-controlled Congress and whether Republicans are able to make the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the biggest legislative accomplishment of President Trump’s first term, permanent.

The biggest procedural question facing Trump’s agenda is whether Republicans can project their impact on future deficits by scoring them as “current policy.”

If extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts are judged as an extension of current policy, then they won’t be counted as adding to future deficits — at least, officially. That would allow Republicans to extend those tax cuts permanently, which is a top Senate GOP priority.

Senate Republicans are arguing that Graham, one of Trump’s biggest allies, will get to make that call.

And........

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