(The Center Square) – Through a newly-introduced amendment, Senate leaders have found a way to move the House’s budget resolution forward and make President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent.

The Senate’s amendment, set for a procedural vote Thursday, would subtract $3.8 trillion from the price tag by changing fiscal policy, authorize $1.5 trillion to fund other Trump tax goals, and raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion.

By adopting a current policy baseline, which treats renewing the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as a continuation of current law rather than new policy, the Senate’s amendment zeros out the cost of extending the cuts and allows for them to be permanent. 

Lawmakers are still awaiting approval from the Senate’s parliamentarian to use the current policy baseline, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., forged ahead anyway, claiming that Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has the power to greenlight it.

“With the passage of this budget resolution, we unlock the ability for the appropriate Senate committees to fully fund our border needs for four years, provide much-needed financial relief to our military at a time of great danger, [and] make the 2017 tax cuts permanent to energize the economy,” Graham, who gave his approval Wednesday, stated.

The House’s original $4.5 trillion budget resolution, operating under a current law baseline, had priced extending the tax cuts for the next ten years at $3.8 trillion. It had instructed House committees to find at least $1.5 trillion to finance the costs, assuming that economic growth would offset the rest.

Normally, the chambers adopt identical budget resolutions giving House and Senate committees the same savings targets before moving forward in the budget reconciliation process. But Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have decided the quickest way to enact Trump’s priorities is by taking a two-tier approach that saves the alignment and other details for later.

The new Senate amendment keeps the House’s deficit reduction instructions and instructs Senate committees to find at least $3 billion in cuts. The low floor will give the upper chamber flexibility to make changes once the compromise budget resolution passes both chambers and the actual writing of the reconciliation package gets going. 

In a social media post Wednesday, Trump said the Senate plan “has my Complete and Total Support” and declared that “Every Republican, House and Senate, must UNIFY. We need to pass it IMMEDIATELY!”

But Democrats, along with some Republicans in the Senate and many in the House, are less enthusiastic than GOP leaders. They point to alarming numbers from outside budget organizations like the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

According to the CRFB, adopting the compromise budget resolution could add anywhere from $45 trillion to $60 trillion to the national debt by 2055. 

House Budget Committee Ranking Member Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., accused Republican leaders of “blatantly lying” about the cost of the bill.

“The use of so-called current policy baseline is just D.C. jargon for the single most irresponsible tax bill in American history,” Boyle said. “This is the very same group that spent four years during President Biden’s administration pretending to care deeply about the deficit. Their hypocrisy is glaringly obvious.”

The amendment needs only a majority vote in the Senate to pass, but it remains unclear whether Thune will have enough Republican votes to do so.

(The Center Square) – Americans’ concern about inflation, the economy, health the federal budget and Social Security is up, with concern about Social Security hitting the highest level in 15-years, according to a newly released poll from Gallup.

However, the poll also reports that Americans are  concerned about crime, drug use, immigration, and energy costs.

“After the change in presidential administrations, partisans’ worries have shifted significantly on most of the 16 issues Gallup measured, as Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents have become more concerned, while Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are less worried,” wrote Megan Brenan, a senior editor for Gallup.

As always, the economy and economic issues remain at the forefront of American concerns. Poll respondents were nearly equally worried about the economy and the availability and affordability of health care, with 60% indicating they worry “a great deal” about the economy and 59% for health care. Fifty-six percent worry a lot about inflation, and over 50% are very concerned about the federal budget and Social Security. Hunger, homelessness, “the way income and wealth are distributed” as well as “the size and power of the federal government” also register as serious concerns for nearly half of Americans.

Meanwhile, crime and violence, the quality of the environment, the possibility of a terrorist attack on the U.S., illegal immigration and drug use ranked as issues of less concern to Americans. 

“Americans exhibit the lowest concern about unemployment, the availability and affordability of energy, and race relations,” Brenan wrote. 

Americans haven’t been this concerned about health care since the start of the pandemic, while distress over race relations has continued to drop since 2021, when it peaked at 48%, according to Gallup. Thirty-three percent of respondents indicated they were very worried about race relations, while 18% indicated they were “not at all” worried. 

Gallup conducted phone interviews with 1,002 randomly selected adults from March 3-16 for this poll. 

(The Center Square) – The California Legislature quashed a bill that would have banned students from using sex-segregated programs or facilities of the opposite gender, after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signaled his support for such a policy while hosting conservative activist Charlie Kirk on his podcast.

“Well, I think it’s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that … it’s deeply unfair,” said Newsom when Kirk asked about whether he thinks it’s fair that boys are participating in girls’ sports.

The bill, Assembly Bill 844, would have required that when it comes to sex-segregated facilities and programs, students of all ages would be segregated according to their sex, not their gender identity.

Bill author Bill Essayli, a Republican who resigned Tuesday from the Assembly to take an appointment as a U.S. attorney, argued that it’s unfair and dangerous for biological males to participate in girls’ sports and access girls’ locker rooms.

“California’s current policy allowing biological males to compete in girls’ sports and access female locker rooms is not only unfair —it’s dangerous,” wrote Essayli in support of the bill. “It violates the privacy of our students, robs female athletes of their hard-earned opportunities and undermines the very intent of Title IX.”

Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal funding, and is largely credited with increasing female sports and activity availability.

Opponents argued the legislation would result in discrimination and harm transgender students.

“The bill would discriminate against transgender individuals and prohibit them from playing school sports — even if they have been living consistent with their gender identity and receiving treatment for gender dysphoria, for years,” wrote Equality California. “The bill would also invite scrutiny and harassment of any student perceived as not conforming to sex stereotypes, and violate student privacy by requiring students to answer invasive personal questions if they want to play sports or even to use the bathroom.”

The bill failed at its first committee vote, only earning the support of the committee’s two Republicans. Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, was the lone Democrat to abstain from the vote as the other Democrats voted in opposition. 

When asked at a press conference Wednesday on the bill, Newsom said the state is facing a “myriad” of issues right now and that it’s not where “all” of his “energy” flows.

“How can you make this fair? And I haven’t been able to figure it out,” said Newsom. “This is not where all my energy flows. You’re talking about a very small number of people.”

“To the extent that someone could find that right balance, I would embrace those conversations,” continued Newsom.