Tax overhaul drama moves to U.S. Senate as House approves its bill
WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - Congressional Republicans took an important step yesterday toward the biggest U.S. tax-code overhaul since the 1980s as the House of Representatives approved a broad package of tax cuts sought by senior lawmakers and President Donald Trump.
The House vote shifted the tax debate to the U.S. Senate, where that chamber’s own plan was being debated into Thursday evening. That measure has already encountered resistance from some within the Republicans ranks. No decisive Senate action is expected until after next week’s Thanksgiving holiday.
Four Republican senators - enough to derail the legislation - have been talking privately about opposing the bill because it would balloon the federal deficit, according to a Time magazine report.
Trump, who is still seeking his first major legislative win since taking office in January, went to the U.S. Capitol just before the House vote to urge Republicans to pass the tax bill, which Democrats call a giveaway to the wealthy and businesses.
“A simple, fair and competitive tax code will be rocket fuel for our economy, and it’s within our reach. Now is the time to deliver,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said after the largely party-line House vote of 227-205.
Congress has not thoroughly overhauled the sprawling U.S. tax code since Republican Ronald Reagan was president. The House measure is not as comprehensive as Reagan’s 1986 package, but it is more ambitious than anything since then.
The path forward for the tax plan in the Senate, where Republicans have a narrow majority, is fraught with obstacles about concerns over the deficit, healthcare and the distribution of tax benefits. Republicans can lose no more than two Senate votes if Democrats remain united in opposition.
Senate Republican tax-writers earlier this week made the risky decision of tying their plan to a repeal of the requirement for people to get healthcare insurance under former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. That exposed the tax initiative to the same political forces that wrecked Republicans’ anti-Obamacare push earlier in July.
The House bill, estimated to increase the federal deficit by nearly $1.5 trillion over 10 years, would consolidate individual and family tax brackets to four from seven and reduce the corporate tax rate to 20
WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - Satellite images taken this month of a North Korean naval shipyard indicate Pyongyang is pursuing an “aggressive schedule” to build its first operational ballistic missile submarine, a U.S. institute reported on Thursday.
Washington-based 38 North, a North Korea monitoring project, cited images taken on Nov. 5 showing activity at North Korea’s Sinpo South Shipyard.
“The presence of what appear to be sections of a submarine’s pressure hull in the yards suggests construction of a new submarine, possibly the SINPO-C ballistic missile submarine - the follow-on to the current SINPO-class experimental ballistic missile submarine,” 38 North said in a report.
The report said that throughout 2017 there had been continued movement of parts and components into and out of two parts yards adjacent to the constructions halls in the center of the shipyard. percent from 35 percent.
It also would scale back or end some popular tax deductions, including one for state and local income taxes, while preserving a capped deduction for property tax payments.