Democrats: Tax bill is a con job

WASHINGTON — Republicans will pitch their tax bill this week as a gift to the middle class, but Democrats will call it a Trojan horse: a windfall for big business and the rich dressed as a tax cut for workers.

The tensions over who will benefit from the tax rewrite were on display during an hourlong meeting last week between President Donald Trump and Senate Finance Committee members. Democrats who attended, including many whose states Trump won, said the president agreed with every point raised on the subject of tax cuts for the middle class. At the end of the meeting, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told Trump the tax bill Republicans were drafting would not deliver on his promises to the middle class and would instead benefit corporations and high earners.

Trump looked at his top economic advisers, waved his hand, and said, “Take care of it,” Wyden recalled in an interview.

Democrats have little expectation Republican lawmakers will take heed when House lawmakers introduce their tax bill next week. Wyden and other Democrats are already attacking the legislation as a bait-and-switch in the hopes that they can find a path forward to a bipartisan tax bill they believe will truly benefit middle-class Americans.

“This is a middle-class con job,” Wyden said.

Democrats hope by killing the Republican bill, they can work with Trump to craft bipartisan legislation that achieves a middle-class tax cut.

Republicans are putting the middle class at the forefront of the discussion of their plan to pass the tax code rewrite. Their primary claim is that cutting taxes on businesses, including lowering the top corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent, will generate large wage gains for U.S. workers.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters Thursday “the entire purpose of this tax bill is to cut middle-class taxes.” But he warned earlier in the week that, to meet Democrats’ demands to avoid cutting taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals, “we would basically have to destroy the growth elements of this tax reform plan.” Republicans argue that lowering the tax burden on businesses will generate economic growth to help offset the cost of the plan.