Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Bob Corker said Friday that they will support their party’s $1.5 trillion tax bill.
That gives a major boost to the prospects that GOP leaders will be able to push their prized measure through Congress next week.
But the final draft won’t include a measure that President Donald Trump had promised to evangelical voters – a repeal of a law forbidding churches from endorsing candidates and engaging in other explicit politicking.
The 1954 Johnson Amendment also keeps churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship from raising money for politicians unless they want to give up their federal tax-exempt status.
Trump pledged at the National Prayer Breakfast in February to ‘totally destroy’ the law.
Tennessee Republican Senator Bob Corker surprised Washington on Friday by abandoning his opposition to the GOP’s $1.5 trillion tax reform bill
Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio became a ‘yes’ vote when lawmakers sweetened the pot for working families who claim a child tax credit
The tax plan passed by the House of Representatives included a repeal, but the Senate’s version did not. As lawmakers met to hammer out the differences, Democrats prevailed in stripping it out of the final compromise.
Rubio, a Florida lawmaker, had said he would oppose the evolving tax legislation unless his colleagues made tax credits more generous for low-income families with children.
On Friday, Republicans said the final legislation would do just that.
The tax package will increase the tax credit overall from $1,000 per child to $2,000.
Lawmakers said Friday that the bill would let low-earners using the credit get up to $1,400 in IRS refunds if they owe little or no taxes. That’s up from $1,100 in the earlier version.
Rubio tweeted that the change is ‘a solid step toward broader reforms which are both Pro-Growth and Pro-Worker.’
‘But there is still much more to do in the months and years to come,’ he added, crediting Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Tim Scott of South Carolina – and first daughter Ivanka Trump – for laying the groundwork.
Corker, a Tennessean, had stood alone for weeks as the tax bill’s only Republican opposition, citing a pledge that he would not support a plan that raised federal budget deficits.
But on Friday he stunned Washington by changing his position.
‘This bill is far from perfect, and left to my own accord, we would have reached bipartisan consensus on legislation that avoided any chance of adding to the deficit and far less would have been done on the individual side with items that do not generate economic growth,’ Corker said in a statement.
President Donald Trump has promised Americans a ‘tax cut for Christmas’ but the final bill won’t roll back the Johnson Amendment, a law that prohibits churches from endorsing or fundraising for political candidates
Trump has promised evangelical Christian leaders that he will spike the Johnson Amendment during his presidency
‘But after great thought and consideration, I believe that this once-in-a-generation opportunity to make U.S. businesses domestically more productive and internationally more competitive is one we should not miss.’
The Republicans’ razor-thin margin for driving their sweeping tax package through the Senate was thrown into jeopardy Thursday with Rubio’s apparent defection.
The Senate turmoil came on the same day that a key faction of House Republicans came out in favor of the bill, boosting its chances. Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus predicted that the vast majority of their members would support the package.
On Wednesday, House and Senate Republican leaders forged an agreement in principle on the most sweeping overhaul of the nation’s tax laws in more than 30 years. The package would give generous tax cuts to corporations and the wealthiest Americans, and more modest tax cuts to low- and middle-income families.
Confident Republican leaders predicted swift passage next week, sending the bill to Trump for his signature.
At the White House, Trump said he was confident that Rubio will get on board.
‘He’s really been a great guy and very supportive. I think that Senator Rubio will be there,’ said Trump, who belittled Rubio during the Republican presidential primaries, calling him ‘little Marco.’
Rubio said on Twitter that enlarging the child tax credit was ‘a solid step’ toward ‘pro-growth and pro-worker’ policies
During debate on the Senate version of the bill, Rubio offered an amendment that would have made the entire $2,000 credit available to families, even if they owe no income tax, but it was soundly defeated. To pay for the expanded credit, Rubio proposed to slightly scale back a steep cut in the corporate income tax rate.
A few days after the earlier Senate vote, Rubio tweeted a link to a news story that said GOP leaders were indeed considering scaling back the corporate tax cut – but not to pay for an expanded child tax credit.
‘They freaked out when I proposed small reduction in Corporate tax cut to pay for cut for working families. Now this?’ Rubio tweeted.
The final package slashes the corporate rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. The initial Senate and House bills had set it at 20 percent.
Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, said Senate negotiators got the best deal they could on the overall child tax credit. House GOP negotiators were proposing a $1,600 tax credit.
‘We won everything in the child tax credit,’ Portman said. When asked if it could be changed further to appease Rubio, Portman said, ‘We’ve already won. I mean, we should celebrate our victory.’
Rubio’s opposition comes at a bad time for Senate Republicans, with two of them missing votes this week because of illness.
John McCain of Arizona, who is 81, is at a Washington military hospital being treated for the side effects of brain cancer treatment, and 80-year-old Thad Cochran of Mississippi had a non-melanoma lesion removed from his nose earlier this week. GOP leaders are hopeful they will be available next week.
The tax legislation would cut the top tax rate for the wealthiest earners – Trump among them – from 39.6 per cent to 37 per cent.
The package would nearly double the standard deduction, to $24,000 for married couples. But it would scale back the deduction for state and local taxes, allowing families to deduct only up to a total of $10,000 in property and income taxes. The deduction is especially important to residents of high-tax states such as New York, New Jersey and California.
Business owners who report business income on their personal tax returns would be able to deduct 20 percent of that income.
The agreement also calls for repealing the mandate under the ‘Obamacare’ health law that requires most Americans to get health insurance, a step toward the ultimate GOP goal of unraveling the law.
The business tax cuts would be permanent, but reductions for individuals would expire in 2026 – saving money to comply with Senate budget rules. In all, the bill would cut taxes by about $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years, adding billions to the nation’s mounting debt.
The tax package is polling badly among the public, but Republicans say that will turn around after Americans see the benefits.
‘The results are going to be what sells this bill, not the confusion before it passes,’ said Speaker Paul Ryan.