This is the process Republicans will use to pass the Trump Tax Scam.

Republicans are choosing to use the same broken process for the Trump Tax Scam that they tried to use for TrumpCare. That means passing a budget resolution that has reconciliation instructions for the tax scam, and then passing the tax scam bill itself.

The most important thing your MoC can do now to fight Trump’s Tax Scam is to oppose the FY18 budget resolution. (Find a call script for Republicans here and a call script for Democrats here.) This document outlines how we expect the process to unfold and what you can do to stop it.

Step 1: Pass a budget resolution

Republicans know the Trump tax scam won’t get the 60 votes usually needed to pass legislation through the Senate. That’s why they want to use the special process called “reconciliation” that allows them to pass a bill through the Senate with only 51 votes.

The first step in reconciliation is passing a budget resolution. The budget resolution has the “instructions” that set up the reconciliation process to pass the Trump tax scam, but it also has spending levels and other policy guidance on mandatory spending (like Medicare, Medicaid, and SNAP) and discretionary spending (like national defense, education, transportation, medical research, environmental programs and more).

The House votes on its budget resolution on October 5. It makes deep cuts to all of these areas except for defense, in addition to setting up the tax scam process. Your MoC, whether Republican or Democrat, should oppose the FY18 budget resolution when it comes up for a vote.

We can stop the Trump Tax Scam altogether if we can stop the budget resolution, mostly likely in the Senate. The longer it takes Republicans to fight over and pass the budget resolution, the better. 

Step 2: Pass the Trump tax scam

If Republicans are able to pass the budget resolution, the next thing they’ll have to do is the pass the Trump tax scam bill itself. We know it will be filled with huge tax breaks for the wealthy and huge tax breaks for corporations. And thanks to the budget resolution, which is a blueprint for the tax scam, we know it will be paid for by taking away Medicaid, Medicare, and other basics. That will be the case even if Republicans initially allow the tax cuts to just go on the debt—they will just come back later to cut programs to address the bigger deficits caused by tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.

The American people do not support the ideas that make up the Trump tax scam. Most Americans think corporations don’t pay enough in taxes—and the Trump tax scam cuts taxes for them. Most Americans support the mega rich paying higher taxes, but the Trump tax scam gives them new tax breaks on top of the ones they already have.

McConnell will try to ram the tax scam bill through. Despite the deep unpopularity of these ideas, Mitch McConnell will try to jam the tax scam through the Senate just like he did TrumpCare. The Senate Finance Committee may hold “hearings” on “tax reform,” but the actual bill itself will most likely be drafted in secret just like TrumpCare, in order to avoid exposing their tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations to the daylight of public scrutiny.

Your MoC, whether Republican or Democrat, should oppose any legislation that cuts taxes for the wealthy and corporations paid for by taking away Medicaid, Medicare, and other basics—or that just loses revenue, which would threaten critical programs with cuts in the future.