Republicans Say They Have a Tax Plan...Plan

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by: Colorado Pols

Perhaps someone will type this up before Republicans try to vote on their tax plan.

As the Washington Post reports, Congressional Republicans are indicating that the House and Senate have come to some sort of agreement on a tax plan that could (potentially) make it through both chambers to the desk of President Trump:

House and Senate Republican leaders have reached an agreement in principle that would lower the corporate tax rate to 21 percent beginning in 2018, a person briefed on the discussions said, part of a compromise $1.5 trillion tax plan they hope to vote into law by next week.

The agreement would also lower the top tax rate for families and individuals to 37 percent, a change that would deliver a major tax cut for upper-income households…

…It’s unclear if all Senate Republicans support the changes, and Republicans can only afford to lose one GOP more vote if they hope to pass the agreement next week, as Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) already opposes the measure. [Pols emphasis]

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has expressed concern about lowering the top tax rate, and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has complained that Republicans did not do more to further expand the Child Tax Credit. But neither has said whether they would oppose the bill.

Republican leaders seem to be fairly confident that they have an agreement in place, though it’s not yet clear if they have the votes to support a final proposal that is expected to be approved by a “conference committee” made up of leaders from both chambers. Staffers are also still working to finalize a draft bill, which would need to be examined by the Joint Committee on Taxation to ensure that it abides by Congressional budget rules.

Republicans are hoping to hold a vote on their wildly-unpopular tax plan sometime next week — before Alabama Democrat Doug Jones is sworn in to replace Republican Luther Strange in the Senate.

8 thoughts on “Republicans Say They Have a Tax Plan…Plan”

Moderatus says:

December 13, 2017 at 12:57 pm

No one expects Colorado Pols to like it.

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1. unnamed says:
  
  December 13, 2017 at 1:03 pm
  
  Hey loser general. Apparently nobody expects the American people to like it either. FYI the people hate it because it sucks.
  
  Kinda like how you lost last night because your candidate sucks.
  
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2. Davie says:
  
  December 13, 2017 at 1:50 pm
  
  The tax reform bill is highly unpopular among the American people. In fact, a majority of U.S. residents (52%), including more than one in five Republicans (22%) and one in five Trump supporters (20%), think the legislation will mostly hurt their personal family finances. In contrast, 30% say it will mostly help them financially
  
  “If the objective of the GOP is to win a legislative battle, then the tax reform bill may still reach its goal,” says Dr. Lee M. Miringoff, Director of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. “But, if the goal is to pass legislation that is supported by most Americans, the tax reform bill comes up very short.”
  
  When it comes to how the Republicans in Congress are handling the issue of tax reform, Americans are increasingly dissatisfied. 63% of U.S. residents, up from 57% in November, say they disapprove of the congressional GOP’s approach.
  
  When it comes to the 2018 midterm elections, the Democrats have the upper hand. 50% of registered voters report they are more likely to vote for the Democratic candidate in their district. 37% say they will support the Republican candidate
  
  Moldy, your party is bent on self-destruction. That's fine, but the problem is, you want to take the rest of us with you. Voters, as even Alabama Republicans now realize, are eager to kick your butts out of office.
  
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  1. itlduso says:
    
    December 13, 2017 at 3:21 pm
    
    I predict the bill will be even more unpopular once, you know, there is an actual bill that can be evaluated. The details will be stunning.
    
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    1. Davie says:
      
      December 13, 2017 at 3:55 pm
      
      Here's what Paul Krugman has to say:
      
      …the bill is junk, hastily drafted and full of exploitable loopholes. Once the tax lawyers and accountants get to work, they will probably find ways for their clients to avoid hundreds of billions in taxes that even the JCT estimates still assume will be paid.
      
      For one thing, the bulk of the gains will go to the rich, who probably spend less of a marginal dollar. And this will be especially true for rich people receiving what they suspect will be transient income gains.
      
      So, imagine yourself as a wealthy, liquid taxpayer experiencing a surge in after-tax income because your accountant has found clever ways to exploit the idiocy of new legislation. It will be fun and lucrative, but you’d have to suspect that the fun will end eventually – that even this GOP, with this leadership, will eventually close the most outrageous loopholes. So we might see big deficits that have relatively little real effect, because the winners from system-gaming save most of their gains.
      
      Put it this way: Republicans would surely use big deficits as an excuse to propose big cuts in social programs, but they’d face a barrage of hostile media coverage, plus lots of public demonstrations as in the case of health care, all reminding everyone that these deficits were created by their own dishonest promises just a few months earlier.
      
      And imagine, as we should, that all of this would go along with many front-page stories about dubious business types abusing the new loopholes. Doesn’t this sound like a political disaster for the GOP?
      
      So the Republicans are desperate for a win, are they?
      
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Davie says:

December 13, 2017 at 1:53 pm

Oh and this too:

So, it seems that Republicans are responding to the devastating defeat in Alabama – which is part of a sustained pattern of underperformance in special elections, demonstrating that bad polls reflect reality, not bad polling, by … doubling down on a massively unpopular tax plan, whose main focus is on cutting corporate taxes.

In fact, they’re rushing to jam the thing through before Doug Jones can be certified, in a stunning act of hypocrisy from the same people who demanded that Obamacare wait until Scott Brown was seated and held up a Supreme Court seat for a year. It’s outrageous. But it also looks like really bad politics, especially given what we know is coming: calls next year for cuts in popular social programs, because of a deficit Republicans just voted to explode.

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1. Diogenesdemar says:
  
  December 13, 2017 at 2:05 pm
  
  “Republicans are desperate for a win . . .”
  
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Phoenix Rising says:

December 13, 2017 at 7:54 pm

Nothing says "looking out for everyday folks" like cramming in a last-minute reduction in the tax rate for millionaires.

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