In addition, Republicans included a provision which requires that if Republicans fail to find $2 trillion worth of savings, the amount of money for tax cuts reduces by the difference between $2 trillion and the final number of savings, giving them even less wiggle room for tax cuts.
The House tends to have far more fiscal hawks than the Senate, although it should go without saying that $4.5 trillion worth of tax cuts is far less than $2 trillion worth of savings and would bust the budget even more than Trump did in his first term.
Sen. Jim Justice of West Virginia defaulted to the classic kind of magic math that Republicans have used to justify sweeping tax cuts for the past few decades: that the tax cuts will unleash economic growth that will make up the difference lost by a decrease in money sent to the federal government.
But there’s another part that could trip up the Republicans: how to reconcile their plan to extend the Trump tax cuts with Trump’s grab bag of campaign promises to eliminate various taxes.
The House bill ostensibly allows for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts throughout the next decade, while requiring spending cuts across the various jurisidictions of $1.5 trillion.
