WASHINGTON (AP) — Buffeted by seething differences, members of a key House panel are digging into work on the sweeping GOP tax plan that President Donald Trump and Republicans are counting on to protect their majorities in elections a year from now.
The Ways and Means Committee started debating the proposed legislation on Monday with nearly eight hours of heated argument and accusations. For majority Republicans, the plan would bring needed tax relief to the middle class, kick-start the lagging economy and create jobs. For the Democrats, it’s a tax-cut bounty for big corporations and the wealthy, and a ham-fisted elimination of benefits relied on by middle-class and low-income people.
Late in the day, the panel approved late changes to the bill that were proposed by its chairman, Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas. The revision restored the tax exemption for employees receiving child care benefits from their companies, but also put new requirements on a tax credit used by working people of modest means.
The vote for Brady’s amendment was 24-16 along party lines. That pattern is likely to hold for votes on other possible GOP amendments through the next three days and on the panel’s passage of the bill.
The changes were the first set of revisions to a nearly-$6 trillion plan for the first major revamp of the U.S. tax system in 30 years. Republicans aim to get the complex GOP tax legislation introduced by Thursday and through Congress and to Trump’s desk by Christmas. Trump made overhauling the tax system a campaign pledge and an economic promise.
Committee Democrats repeatedly lodged objections to the bill, especially its limits on prized deductions for homeowners and its repeal of the child adoption credit and the deduction for medical expenses
Democrats criticized new, tighter requirements in Brady’s amendment for access to the earned income tax credit, including stricter documenting of children and their ages. They insisted it’s a valued tax break for working people of modest income that provides an incentive to remain employed.
“We’re not talking about fraud here,” insisted Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J. “We’re zeroing in on fraud that doesn’t exist.”
Republicans focused on findings by Congress’ nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation that the bill would lower taxes across all income levels over the next several years.
“Clearly this is helping real people. It’s helping teachers, it’s helping students, it’s helping struggling families that are living paycheck to paycheck,” said GOP Rep. Erik Paulsen of Minnesota.
Democrats returned repeatedly to a section of the same analysis showing taxes would actually go up beginning in 2023 for some 38 million taxpayers, or families making $20,000 to $40,000 a year.
The committee’s top Democrat, Richard Neal of Massachusetts, said the bill “puts the well-connected first while forcing millions of American families to watch while their taxes go up.” He and other Democrats complained that Republicans crafted it in private without their input.
At stake is whether the GOP will succeed in passing the most sweeping rewrite of the tax code in decades, which would be a major achievement for congressional Republicans and Trump after a year largely devoid of legislative wins. Looking ahead to 2018 midterms, Democrats and Republicans are both trying to win the debate over who best looks out for middle-class Americans.
The legislation would add $1.5 trillion to an already ballooning national debt as it delivers a major tax cut to corporations and repeals the estate tax, which would benefit a tiny percentage of the wealthiest families in the country. It would also simplify the loophole-ridden tax code by collapsing today’s seven personal income tax brackets into four. And it would nearly double the standard deduction used by people who don’t itemize, and increase the child tax credit, an element championed by first daughter Ivanka Trump.
“It’s about making America’s economy stronger than ever by delivering more jobs, fairer taxes and bigger paychecks across the nation,” said Brady.
After embarrassing failures to make good on years of promises to repeal “Obamacare,” the tax bill is enthusiastically backed by Trump, House GOP leaders and many rank-and-file Republicans. They promise a simpler IRS code, a more globally competitive business tax structure, and tax cuts for the middle class and families with children.
But there’s considerable trepidation as well. In addition to the overall increases in later years for lower-income Americans, many earners in the upper-middle class, especially those from high-tax states, are facing tax increases. That’s because the measure would no longer permit taxpayers to deduct state income taxes from their federal taxes.
Powerful lobbyists are fighting to protect favored deductions, while a few well-financed interest groups, including the National Association of Homebuilders, have already vowed to oppose the legislation. The homebuilders group has voiced concerns over Republicans’ decision to lower the mortgage interest deduction from $1 million to $500,000.
Few people have summed up the sheer viciousness and zealotry of the GOP tax plan like Cong. John Larson of CT, seen in your picture. Here is his condemnation of what the Republicans are doing with this bill (Trumpcare revisited essentially)
The PROBLEM with this ‘tax plan’ is the barking about the ‘average middle class taxpayer’ and what they ‘should’ see…all the while getting rid of exemptions, putting taxes on goods and services ONLY the middle class uses. They try and give with one hand and take with the other and cut cut cut for the 1%…the poor people are on their own.
Can we get some coverage of facts like this, from Bloomberg:
One of these banks is Wells Fargo, said to be the biggest beneficiary of this so called Middle Class tax cut. Not bad for a corporation that screwed thousands by opening fake accounts and received a little slap on the wrist for it.
We would have more traction (in my opinion) if we could hang this fact around the neck of this tax cut.
Why is no one bringing up KANSAS?!? Brownback’s draconian reorg of Kansas’s treasury has nearly RUINED this state- and don’t take my word for it- look it up!
The GOP fantasies since Reagan (except for interns and secretaries)- run gov’t like a business (and how’s THAT workin’ out for ya?) and tax cuts for rich cronies help the little people.
BAH!
Run for office- the 2018 elections are just a year away! And if Trump and Louie Gohmert can get elected what’s to stop a qualified candidate?
Become a Precinct Committee Officer, sometimes it’s a Ward officer. You’ll meet with neighborhood Dems and get out the vote. Find good citizens willing to run for office.
Register people to vote. If you need to help people overcome the GOP-led Voter run-around help them do that.
Run for School Board. Make sure Civics is being properly taught. Think a majority of America knows how government works? Just 26% of eligible voters in America voted for Trump and half of eligible voters stayed home last November. Today’s 12-year olds will be voting for President in 8 years.
Run for Mayor, City Council, County Commissioner, Borough Assembly.
Get appointed to your Planning Commission. Know everything going on in your community.
Run for State Legislature or Congress. The next census is in 2020, just over 2 years from now, then we’ll redraw Congressional Districts. Get rid of GERRYMANDERING! Safe GOP seats gave us such intellectual giants as Louie Gohmert and Steve King. In most cases it’s the state Legislature that draws Congressional boundaries. Make it FAIR, OPEN and HONEST!
Overturn Citizens United. Money is NOT speech and Corporations are NOT people- at least not until Texas executes one.
Overturn any voter ID laws that are clearly an attempt to disenfranchise.
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The Ds have to make the objections to the whole idea VERY simple, since the R tax plan is intentionally complex, like a shell game. The Rs tout the “doubling” (although not quite) of the standard deduction, but they take away the personal exemption which pretty much balances out for some, screws others but mostly just creates talking points to confuse the media and the public.
The Ds’ message should focus on the shell game for the middle class, while CERTAIN benefits for big business and the wealthy. Meanwhile, for everyone who gets a tax cut, they or someone else will lose some of their home value because the property tax and mortgage debt deductions for those who itemize rather than take the standard deduction makes their home less of a tax haven. So really, the R tax plan just give people a tax break (maybe) but takes that money from their the value of their home.
That’s why home builders and real estate agent groups are so against this and they should be and are actually work on our behalf.