Sen. Marco Rubio
Fla. senator seeks expanded child credit in GOP bill
becomes the latest holdout on the GOP tax plan, depriving leaders of his help as they struggle to build support for the bill before next week’s expected vote.
WASHINGTON — Sen. Marco Rubio on Thursday became the latest holdout on the GOP tax plan, depriving leaders of crucial backing as they struggle to build support for the bill before next week’s expected vote.
The Florida Republican, who warned leaders he would vote no unless changes were made to the current version, is pushing for greater refundability of an enhanced child tax credit he and others, including Ivanka Trump, fought to provide for low-income and working class Americans.
By publicly opposing the bill, he now joins those who are capitalizing on the Senate’s delicate math to extract concessions. GOP leaders can only afford to lose two Republican senators from their slim 52-48 majority and still pass the bill next week, with Vice President Mike Pence having postponed his Mideast trip so he can be on hand to break a tie, if needed.
Already, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who opposed an earlier version, remains undecided. The Senate calculus is further jeopardized by the potential absence of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who missed votes this week as he battles brain cancer, and Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., who was recuperating from outpatient treatment for a nonmelanoma lesion but is expected to return for next week’s vote.
Many other senators, including Rubio’s partner on the child tax credit proposal, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, remain undecided.
Some dismissed Rubio’s insistence on revisions as an empty gambit from a senator who, while known for pushing his issues, is hardly seen as a renegade willing to buck party leadership by withholding his vote.
President Donald Trump appeared to take that view, predicting Rubio will come around to support the bill.
“I think he’ll get there,” Trump said during an event at the White House. “He’s really been a great guy, very supportive . ... I think that Sen. Rubio will be there, very shortly.”
Trump should know. As rivals on the presidential campaign trail, he and Rubio sparred in starkly personal ways. But Rubio ultimately endorsed Trump when the businessman became the nominee. Also confident of winning over Rubio were Republican leaders, who said they expected changes to be made to bring Rubio’s support ahead of Tuesday’s likely vote.
“We wouldn’t be having the vote if we didn’t have the votes,” said Sen. John Cornyn the GOP whip.
But Rubio may not be so quick to budge, modeling lessons learned from colleagues, including Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who withheld support on an earlier proposal until they won concessions.
“Sen. Rubio has consistently communicated to the Senate tax negotiators that his vote on final passage would depend on whether the refundability of the Child Tax Credit was increased in a meaningful way,” his spokeswoman said Wednesday.
What Rubio is fighting for — raising the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000 and now making it partly refundable for moderate-income earners — could also help Republicans as they battle criticism that their tax plan is too heavily focused on corporations and wealthier Americans.
Under the revised bill, the steep corporate tax cut, from 35 to 21 percent, will start in 2018, a year earlier than the Senate initially planned, and the top individual bracket will be lowered to 37 percent from today’s 39.6 percent rate for the wealthiest Americans.
Rubio, a father of four, has spoken in personal terms about the expense of raising children, and proposed the credit as part of his platform for president.
“Tax negotiators didn’t have much trouble finding a way to lower the top tax bracket and to start the corporate tax cut a year early,” Rubio said Thursday on Twitter.
“Adding at least a few hundred $’s in refundable cuts for working families who seem to always be forgotten isn’t hard to do either.”
During the Senate vote on the measure last week, Rubio tried unsuccessfully to slightly raise the proposed corporate rate, then at 20 percent, by about one percentage point, using that money to pay for the enhanced child credit. The idea was voted down.
With Lee, Rubio had already succeeded in doubling the child tax credit, to $2,000 per dependent. But he argues it needs to be refundable against payroll taxes for lower-income earners, otherwise it will mostly benefit wealthier households.
“I have been asked by some people: Why isn’t that enough?” Rubio argued on the Senate floor earlier this month. “The answer is that the people we most want to help are not going to be able to fully use it.”