Senate passes budget, closes in on tax reform

Republicans took one step closer Thursday to overhauling the nation’s tax code when the Senate passed a $4 trillion budget. “Now with this budget we are on a path to delivering much needed relief to American individuals and families who have borne the burden of an unfair tax code for entirely too long,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said. The budget vote was nonbinding, and the specific numbers are likely to change. But the reconciliation instructions in the budget could could allow the Senate to take up a tax reform bill with just 50 votes, avoiding a filibuster. The House passed its own budget resolution, and the two chambers must now work on a way to merge the two proposals.