Toomey: Passage of tax bill ‘a very big deal for me’
Philadelphia Inquirer
WASHINGTON — This is why Sen. Pat Toomey came to Washington.
With the final passage of his party’s tax bill, the Pennsylvania Republican scored a landmark personal achievement — sharply cutting taxes in the aim of spurring economic growth, a goal that has driven his work in public life.
“This is a very big deal for me,” Mr. Toomey said in his Senate office Wednesday morning, wearing a crisp blue suit and pink tie. “I’ve wanted to do this for 20 years, and I’m really grateful to have this opportunity. This comes along less than once a generation.”
Mr. Toomey had a front-line role on the controversial plan, helping to write it, sell it in public and defend it on the Senate floor. It was the culmination of work he has pursued since joining the House in 1999, in leading the conservative Club for Growth and in his seven years in the Senate.
President Donald Trump called out Mr. Toomey at a White House celebration, saying, “He knows his business.”
A former derivatives trader and owner of a small chain of sports bars near Allentown, Mr. Toomey made regular trips to White House talks and was one of four GOP senators charged with explaining the bill to colleagues at lunch meetings. When the first Senate version passed earlier this month, Mr. Toomey spent hours on the chamber’s floor, papers stacked on his desk as he jousted with Bernie Sanders, Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey and numerous other Democratswho arrived to criticize it.
At one point, Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., walked up to Mr. Toomey and silently pumped his fist in encouragement.
Mr. Toomey has long been one of the GOP’s most prominent voices on fiscal policy, pairing staunchly conservative views — often to the right of fellow Republicans — with wonky details boiled down to digestible talking points and a mild demeanor that belies his firm viewpoints.
“I don’t think this would have happened without Pat Toomey,” Mr. Gardner said. “He is somebody who has a keen intellectual grasp of the issues but can explain it in a very common-sense way.”
Mr. Toomey also had a leading role this year in trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, pushing hard to roll back Medicaid funding. He pressed to make the tax cuts as large as possible, despite projections that they could explode the deficit.
The measure Mr. Toomey helped craft, however, is deeply unpopular, according to multiple public opinion polls, and the overwhelming consensus among nonpartisan analysts is that its largest benefits will go to the wealthy and businesses.