Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) accused Senate Republicans of “going nuclear,” but the law and his own party contradict his claim.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) is advancing a budget resolution that will unlock President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda through a later budget reconciliation bill. And in calculating tax and spending changes, Republicans are using a current policy baseline – essentially, using current tax and spending policies to make their decisions, despite any potential future sunsets under current law.
The Budget Control Act of 1974, which established modern Congressional budgeting procedures, authorizes the Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee – currently Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) – to determine the policy baseline used when considering budget resolutions.
Nonetheless, the embattled Schumer breathlessly stated Wednesday that “Republicans are going nuclear” by – according to him – ignoring the Senate parliamentarian by using a current policy baseline.
“Senate Republicans are so hell-bent on cutting taxes for billionaires, they’re now willing to detonate the rules of the Senate, violate norms and traditions, and break their word to get it done,” he said. “Republicans are doing something they said they’d never do: they are about to go nuclear.”
The tough-talking Schumer, who certainly is aware of the law, might be bloviating in an attempt to score points with the radical base that abandoned him after his embarrassing March defeat by Senate Republicans over a government funding bill. The week of that vote, Schumer excited leftwing Democrats with a floor speech announcing the Republicans did not have the votes for their plan, only to fold a day later without extracting any concessions.
By focusing on arcane Senate procedures and tired talking points, Schumer is successfully avoiding addressing the budget’s substance. But despite Schumer’s posturing and freewheeling usage of the term, the “nuclear option” is not at play – nor does he have a leg to stand on to attack its deployment.
In Senate parlance, deploying the nuclear option entails a majority exploiting its numerical advantage to override the ruling of the parliamentarian – effectively, breaking the rules to change the rules.
Despite Schumer’s latest mania, the most blockbuster deployment of the nuclear option was launched by Democrats in 2013. Former Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) notoriously deployed the tactic to overrule the correct ruling of the parliamentarian that a 60-vote supermajority – often called the filibuster – was required to end debate on nominations.
Schumer and all but three Senate Democrats voted along with Reid against the parliamentarian’s ruling, enabling Democrats to break Senate rules and confirm a litany of President Barack Obama’s nominees.
His hypocrisy isn’t lost on Republicans who are determined to march forward in accordance with the law to enact Trump’s agenda.
“Democrats tried to destroy the Senate by abolishing the filibuster. Now they’re attacking Republicans for a procedure that Democrats used to embrace,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) told Breitbart News. “The law is clear, and no amount of whining from Senate Democrats will stop Republicans from delivering safety and prosperity for American families.”
Even the Obama White House agreed with Cotton and Senate Republicans’ assessment of the law, arguing in January 2013 that the level of spending cuts and deficit reduction from that month’s fiscal cliff deal should be determined by the current policy.
“The relevant point of comparison isn’t current law, it is ‘current policy,’” Acting White House Budget Director Jeff Zients wrote at the time.
Once signed into law in January 2013, the fiscal cliff deal extended the George W. Bush-era tax cuts beyond their end-of-2012 expiration. Zients argued that the baseline policy at the time – based on expectations that the tax cuts would be extended – should be assumed.
Even Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), then chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, made clear in a 2022 report that the Chairman is responsible for determining baselines.
“The Budget Committee, through its Chair, makes the call on questions of numbers,” his report reads.
Even the Senate parliamentarian has agreed that the Budget Committee through its chairman makes the call.
In 2005, Sen. Judd Gregg, (R-NH) then chairman of the committee, inquired on the Senate floor for a parliamentary ruling on the matter. Through the presiding officer, the parliamentarian confirmed the chairman possessed the authority to determine the baseline to use.
Thune took to the Senate floor Thursday to lambast Democrats for their intentional misremembrance of history.
“Democrats themselves have previously advocated for the use of a current policy baseline. They basically invented it back in 1977, shortly after the Budget Act was enacted,” Thune said. “Chairman [Edmund] Muskie, a Democrat from Maine and chairman of the Budget Committee, used a current policy baseline in his budget resolution because he thought it represented a more realistic benchmark.”
Thune delivered a dagger to Schumer’s argument by disclosing that the Senate parliamentarian authorized the budget resolution using a current policy baseline to move forward.
“I should also note, of course, that the Senate parliamentarian has deemed the Senate budget resolution, which uses the [current] policy baseline, in order and ready for floor consideration,” he said.
Schumer is unlikely to support Republicans’ budget resolution, nor are any other Democrats. But despite Schumer’s disingenuous parliamentary protests, Republicans are rushing ahead to deliver on the policies from their Election Day mandate.
Bradley Jaye is Deputy Political Editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter and Instagram @BradleyAJaye.
