Trump administration touts ‘tax cut for working families’
WASHINGTON — Republicans, confident they’ve found the votes to pass a massive tax overhaul, entered the next phase of their effort Sunday, attempting to sell the plan to a public that polling suggests is deeply skeptical.
GOP leaders argued that the tax bill — the final version of which was unveiled Friday — is aimed primarily at helping the middle class, brushing aside nonpartisan analyses that show the bulk of the legislation’s benefits would go to the wealthy and to corporations.
“This is a very large tax cut for working families,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNN. He said some upper-income families, particularly in blue states, would actually see their taxes go up because of the reduction of the state and local tax deduction under the plan.
The sales pitch is trying to turn public opinion in favor of a $1.46 trillion Republican bill that centers on a massive tax rate decrease for corporations and a dramatic reduction in the estate tax, which is paid only by a fraction of the wealthiest American families.
Most Americans would see their overall tax burden reduced under the bill during its first few years of implementation, but the bill’s long-term implications for the middle class are more complicated, depending both on an individual family’s circumstances and decisions that won’t be made for years.
Most Americans would see their overall tax burden reduced under the GOP plan during its first few years of implementation, as it would reduce tax rates for every income bracket. But the size of those tax cuts will vary widely, due in large part to changes that the measure would make to the tax code’s complicated system of tax deductions. It would double the “standard” deduction used by many middle-class taxpayers while also eliminating or reducing some other deductions frequently used by those who itemize their returns.
The plan schedules many of these individualside tax cuts to expire in eight years, though Republicans say they expect a future Congress to extend these cuts before they sunset and, as such, should be considered permanent.
The bill would also raise revenue by eliminating a number of deductions and the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will lead to 13 million fewer Americans having health insurance a decade from now.
Polling has consistently found approval ratings for the bill at below 35 percent, and a CBS poll from last week found that 76 percent of Americans believe its biggest benefits will go to the largest corporations.
Congressional Republicans have started their uphill climb to persuade Americans otherwise, touting the broad benefits they expect as a result of the large corporate rate tax cut and dismissing claims that the bill will balloon the deficit.
“We give everyone in every tax bracket a tax cut,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. “We’re going to get the economy roaring back again, improve pay, increase jobs, and make America more competitive.”
Confronted by a report from the International Business Times that some Republican lawmakers inserted last-minute changes that would personally enrich them, Cornyn said: “Our Democratic colleagues simply refused to participate in the process — we could have made it better if they had.”
But not everyone is convinced. “Do I think they could have done better for the middle class? I do,” Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Amid the tax debate, there has been scant progress toward a spending deal. Current federal spending authority is set to expire at the end of Friday, and a partial government shutdown will ensue if Congress does not act to extend it.
House Republican leaders filed a spending bill last week that would temporarily extend funding for most government agencies at current levels until Jan. 19, while providing longerterm military funding at higher levels — $650 billion through Sept. 30. But that bill is considered dead on arrival in the Senate, where Democrats can block it because of the chamber’s 60-vote filibuster threshold.
Sen. Susan Collins, RMaine, struck a deal with President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to provide subsidies for the Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplaces in return for her vote on the tax bill.