Republicans to unveil broad tax cut plan

President Donald Trump and top Republicans will promise a package of sweeping tax cuts for companies and individuals, people briefed on the planning said, but the GOP leaders will stop short of labeling many of the tax breaks they hope to strip away, putting off controversial decisions that threaten to sink the party’s tax effort.

Republicans’ “unified” framework, which they will release and promote Wednesday during speeches and meetings, aims to cut taxes by more than $5 trillion over 10 years and recoup more than half of that lost revenue by eliminating numerous tax breaks.

By refusing to specify on Wednesday which tax breaks could be jettisoned, GOP leaders make a calculated effort to try to postpone any backlash while they try to build a coalition.

They already spent months tangling over whether to raise taxes on imported goods, and lobbying groups often move swiftly to try to torpedo bills that threaten favored deductions.

Wednesday’s push comes as Republicans renew their tax cut effort with a sense of political desperation, furious that repeated attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act have collapsed in the Senate.

But the fresh wounds from the latest failed Senate health care effort threaten to undermine the tax push as well, with some key lawmakers saying they should attach health care changes to the tax plan as a way to ensure both eventually become law. Senate GOP leaders are trying to quash that effort, worried it could doom the tax cut initiative and leave the party with nothing to show for its majority rule heading into the 2018 midterm elections.

After more than eight months of negotiating, the White House and GOP leaders have agreed on several targets for the tax cuts.

“I see us as having the opportunity to fulfill our constitutional role of writing tax reform,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, said.

They will propose slashing the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent and call for lowering the rate many high-income businesses pay through the individual income tax code to 25 percent. The plan is expected to include other incentives meant to spur companies to invest and spend money immediately.

In addition, they will call for lowering the top tax bracket for individuals and families from the current 39.6 percent to 35 percent, but they will also ask lawmakers to find a way to limit the overall benefit the very wealthy would receive. This could include charging them a higher tax rate, but no final decisions have been made.

They will propose nearly doubling the standard deduction, which allows people to lower their taxable income. They will also propose expanding the child tax credit.