Republicans in the House and Senate said Wednesday that they had reached a deal in principle covering final details of the first major tax-code overhaul in more than 30 years.
‘We’re very close to getting it done,’ President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House Wednesday morning as he sat down for lunch with Republican congressional leaders. ‘We’re very close to voting.’
Trump called the coming changes ‘a tax cut the likes of which we haven’t seen, for not only business but for the working families of our country.’
He predicted that the typical middle income-earning family would see an additional $2,000 remain in their household bank accounts each year.
The sweeping changes will likely see final votes next week in both chambers of Congress, slashing income taxes for businesses and individual taxpayers starting in January.
President Donald Trump will speak Wednesday afternoon about a tax cut package he hopes will his his desk by Christmas, and Republican legislative managers in the House and Senate said hours beforehand that they had reached a deal
Trump talked to reporters at the top of a lunch with Republican congressional leaders, predicting that typical middle-class families will see $2,000 in annual savings from tax cuts
The tax overhaul is complicated by Tuesday’s U.S. Senate special election in Alabama, which cost Republicans a precious seat when Republican Roy Moore lost – meaning they will have less wiggle-room to reach a tax-cut majority once Democrat Doug Jones is seated
The compromise legislation will be unveiled by week’s end, according to a senior GOP aide on Capitol Hill.
Final resolution of the months-long process comes as Trump prepares to deliver a ‘closing argument’ speech Wednesday that will take a victory lap and proclaim the tax cuts a Christmas present for voters.
Trump will speak alongside five middle-class families, according to senior administration officials.
The president’s main mission is to persuade Americans that while the tax rewrite will benefit corporations, ordinary earners will also see a significant benefit in the form of greater job security or higher wages as the IRS leaves more money on the table.
Tax reform will be Trump’s first major legislative achievement. A last-minute thumbs-down from Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain killed his Obamacare repeal measure in the fall.
Timing, though, is everything: Congress ends its year a week from Friday, and Republicans will lose a Senate seat just days later.
With Alabama Democrat Doug Jones’ stunning triumph Tuesday night, the GOP’s majority will shrink there from four votes to just two – a thin 51-49 advantage.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, whose role is to cut deals with conference members and assess how many votes the proposal will get on the Senate floor, said Wednesday that a final deal is very close
Democrats led by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer want Jones, the Alabamian, seated in the Senate before a final tax vote is called – but that’s highly unlikely
So if House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell hope to succeed in rewriting the loophole-cluttered federal tax code and putting a bill on Trump’s desk to sign, the clock is ticking.
Alabama’s secretary of state could certify the results as soon as December 27.
Democrats have complained that the GOP’s tax plan tilts too far in the direction of cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy. Outside liberal groups are already agitating for a delay in final votes until Jones can be seated.
The hashtag ‘#DelayForDoug’ began trending in some cities just hours after Tuesday night’s election results were clear.
The latest tax negotiations settled on a small drop in the highest individual marginal tax rate, from 39.6 per cent to 37 per cent.
Other than Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan (left) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (right) stand to gain the most politically from the first major tax code rewrite in more than 30 years
Business tax rates will settle at a maximum of 21 per cent, a level that is only slightly higher than in the Republicans’ first draft, but still represents significant relief for job-creators.
The current top corporate rate is 35 per cent, a number that Trump on Wednesday called ‘the highest in the industrialized world – in many cases, by far.’
Lawmakers sold the slight uptick to conservatives as a way to pay for a higher child tax credit.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas told Politico that chairmen of the bicameral ‘conference committee’ selected to hammer out differences in the House and Senate tax blueprints are ‘very close’ to a final deal.
‘We’ve got to get this thing wrapped up so we can get it on the floor next week,’ Cornyn said.