Top US Senate Republican, White House, aim for tax bill by year-end

WASHINGTON: The top US Senate Republican and the White House budget director said they hoped for action on a Republican tax reform package by the end of the year, while keeping their options open on how to pay for sweeping tax cuts.

President Donald Trump’s plan promises up to US$6 trillion in tax cuts but would increase the federal deficit by US$1.5 trillion over the next decade.

Democrats have criticized the package as a giveaway to the rich and corporations that would balloon the federal deficit.

Republicans, who control both the Senate and House of Representatives, have yet to produce a bill as their selfimposed deadline to overhaul the US tax code by the end of 2017 approaches.

The party’s lawmakers differ widely on what cuts to make and how to pay for them.

The White House is not banking on achieving enough spending cuts to get through Congress, according to Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s budget director.

“I think we’ve made a decision now within the administration that plan A or part of plan A, which was to try and cut our way to balance, just wasn’t going to get very far in Washington, D.C.” Mulvaney said on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation.’

“We hit off US$54 billion worth of discretionary cuts in our budget back in March. Only about 4 or 5 billion (dollars) have survived so far on the Hill,” he said. “We’re not going to be able to cut our way to balance.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said estimated growth for the overall economy in the Republican plan would offset the tax cuts.

Asked on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ whether he has abandoned his longtime insistence that tax cuts be revenue-neutral, McConnell said, “No, actually we’re not because that’s a rather conservative estimate of how much growth you’ll get out of this pro-growth tax reform.”

Trump’s tax reform proposal cleared a critical hurdle on Thursday, when the Senate approved a budget measure that will allow Republicans to pursue a tax-cut package without support from Democrats.

Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who attended a Senate Finance Committee meeting at the White House last week, said Trump is at a fork in the road on the tax reform bill.

Brown said the president can work with Democrats on helping the middle class and keeping jobs in the country, or throw in with the billionaires.

“The people closest to the president whispering in his ear all want to do tax cuts for - want to do trickle-down economics, big tax cuts for the wealthiest people in the country, and hope it trickles down,” Brown said on CNN. “They say it’s budget-neutral, and they say it will raise wages. It’s never done that throughout history.”

Mulvaney said he has heard that the House of Representatives may move quickly to accept the Senate’s amendments and save 10 to 12 legislative days.