Tax-cut bill gets GOP focus
Looking for wins, party rebuffs contention around Trump
WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans showed scant signs Wednesday of turning on Donald Trump, rallying instead behind their party’s tax-cutting plans a day after a pair of prominent GOP senators denounced the president in scathing terms.
“I just think that right now our members are pretty well convinced that we need to put some points on the board, get some wins,” said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 Senate Republican leader. “So I think the cohesion in the conference right now is pretty strong, particularly on the issue of tax reform.”
Thune’s comments came after a day in which GOP Sens. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Bob Corker of Tennessee openly assailed the president. Flake accused Trump of “a flagrant disregard for truth and decency” while Corker said the president was “untruthful” and debasing the nation.
Flake, who said he won’t seek re-election next year because a traditional conservative like him has become all but unelectable in the GOP, stepped up his criticism of Trump on Wednesday. He invoked the 1950s demagoguery of Sen. Joseph McCarthy and said, “You can’t continue to just remain silent” about Trump’s politics and behavior.
“There is a tipping point. … I hope we’re reaching that tipping point,” Flake told NBC’s Today.
At the White House, Trump dismissed the criticism, insisting there is “great
unity in the Republican Party” and saying he expects the two senators to back GOP tax cuts.
The president said Flake bowed out because he couldn’t win next year.
“His poll numbers are terrible. He’s done terribly for the great people of Arizona, a state that likes Donald Trump very much, as even you will admit. And he would have never won,” Trump said.
While Flake and Corker’s comments underscored GOP divisions, there was no evidence that they’d caused a broad shift that could derail the party’s legislative agenda.
“We’re all professionals here,” said Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga. “These two guys can say and do what they want to do. But right now, we’ve got a bigger issue, and the bigger issue is to get this tax bill done.”
Asked whether Corker and Flake’s discontent could make it harder for Republicans to push their tax cuts through Congress, Thune said, “Everybody gets to vote the way they want to vote, but both of them are very conscientious and principled and want to do the right thing.”
Even so, Flake was making no promises about backing the still-evolving GOP tax package, which could make federal deficits far worse.
“I don’t expect to be voting differently than I would before,” Flake said. “Certainly on this tax bill, for example, I know that a lot of us are very concerned about the debt and deficit and want to make sure this is actually tax reform and not just a tax cut.”
401(K) DISPUTES
Trump and Republicans also were at odds Wednesday over changing the 401(k) retirement program to help finance tax cuts, with the president insisting that the middle-class favorite will remain untouched and lawmakers open to revisions.
Rep. Kevin Brady, the chairman of the House’s tax-writing panel, wouldn’t rule out changes to the program used by 55 million U.S. workers who hold some $5 trillion in their 401(k) accounts, a system that has become a touchstone of retirement security for the middle class.
Earlier this week, Trump promised the program would be left alone, and appeared to bolster that pledge Wednesday, saying he moved swiftly to end speculation that the tax-deferred program may be changed because it’s vital for working Americans.
But he went on to muddy the waters, when asked about Brady’s statements hours earlier.
“Maybe it is, and maybe we’ll use that as negotiating,” Trump said during an impromptu news conference as he left the White House for a trip to Texas. “But trust me … there are certain elements of deals you don’t want to negotiate with … and Kevin knows it, and I think Kevin Brady is fantastic, but he knows how important 401(k)s are.”
Brady, head of the House Ways and Means Committee, said earlier Wednesday that he’s discussing the issue with Trump, who had shot down the possibility of changes Monday.
The nearly $6 trillion GOP plan calls for steep tax cuts for corporations and promised reductions for middle-income taxpayers, a doubling of the standard deduction used by most Americans, shrinking the number of tax brackets from seven to three or four, and the repeal of inheritance taxes on multimillion-dollar estates. The child tax credit would be increased and the tax system would be simplified.
With Republican leaders battling to show themselves as true standard-bearers for the middle class, in the face of next year’s midterm elections that are deemed essential to retaining their majority, the 401(k) issue has become a flash point. GOP lawmakers have been considering changes to the 401(k) structure, such as limiting the amount of tax-deferred contributions employees can make, as a way to help finance tax cuts.
Asked whether the retirement savings program was still a possible target, Brady said, “We’re working very closely with the president.”
“We think, in tax reform, we can create incentives for Americans to save more and save sooner, which can help them,” Brady told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast. “So we are exploring a number of ideas in those areas. … We are continuing discussions with the president, all focused on saving more, saving sooner.”
Brady’s counterpart in the Senate, Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah, also indicated that possible changes to 401(k) s remain on the table. “I’m open to looking at anything,” he said.
Republicans are trying to mitigate the revenue-losing effects of cutting tax rates, particularly Trump’s push to reduce the corporate rate to 20 percent from 35 percent, which the White House says
is nonnegotiable. The budget resolution would allow for $1.5 trillion in additional deficits from tax cuts over the next decade, though the proposed tax cuts already revealed would cost well over $2 trillion.
One such idea for mitigating the tax cuts is the scrapping of the state and local tax deduction. Republicans from states where the deduction is widely used remained adamantly opposed to losing it.
“To me, the only way to stop this is to defeat the budget tomorrow,” Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said Wednesday. “Once the budget passes, they hold all the cards.”
King was referring to the federal budget bill, which if enacted will protect the tax plan from a Democratic filibuster. A vote in the House is expected to be held today.
“They’re asking us to vote on the budget for a tax bill they haven’t shown us on a promise that somehow it’s going to be fair, even though they’re talking about knocking out [the state and local tax deduction],” King said. “I don’t see how anyone from those districts can vote for the budget under that, even if they promise us something.”
INVOKING MCCARTHY
Flake and Corker’s comments — especially Flake’s announcement that he would not seek re-election — seemed to overshadow Congress’ work toward a tax plan.
In Texas, Joe Straus, the speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, announced Wednesday that he would not run again. Straus, who has tangled with his state’s hard-liners, delivered a plea that Republicans “appeal to our diverse population with an optimistic vision.”
Andy Surabian, an adviser to Great America Alliance, the super political action committee that is aiding primary races against Republican incumbents, noted, “There is zero appetite for the ‘Never Trump’ movement in the Republican Party of today. This party is now defined by President Trump and his movement.”
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, sought to shift the focus to action, rather than attitude, saying lawmakers must “distinguish between the president’s policy agenda and his approach to governing.”
“There have been many of us for a long time who have had concerns about [Trump’s] approach to governing,” Collins said. She added later, “But I accept the fact that he is president now. We need to learn to work better together and respect the roles that each of us have to play.”
Trump took to Twitter Wednesday, saying Flake and Corker — who is also retiring — aren’t running for re-election because “they had zero chance of being elected.”
He also contended that Flake and Corker stand alone, boasting in several tweets that he had gotten standing ovations at a Senate Republicans luncheon Tuesday at the Capitol.
Flake, in an op-ed column Wednesday in The Washington Post, cited the era of McCarthy, the Republican Wisconsin senator whose smear tactics alleging communist infiltration ultimately led to his censure. In the column, Flake quoted Joseph Welch, an Army lawyer, who stood up to McCarthy in a June 1954 hearing and demanded, “Have you no sense of decency, Sir?”
“The moral power of Welch’s words ended McCarthy’s rampage on American values, and effectively his career as well,” Flake wrote. “We face just such a time now. We have again forgotten who we are supposed to be.”
Still, Trump on Wednesday painted a rosy picture of the party.
“We have, actually, great unity in the Republican Party,” he told reporters.