Rubio threat to vote ‘no’ imperils tax bill

Thursday — could delay or derail the tax effort.

Rubio says it’s imperative that the GOP make its plan more generous for working families, especially as lawmakers repeatedly revise it to strengthen benefits for the wealthy and corporations.

“I understand that this is a process of give and take, especially when there’s only a couple of us fighting for it, the leverage is lessened,” Rubio said Thursday in the Senate. “But given all the other changes made in the tax code leading into it, I can’t in good conscience support it unless we are able to increase [the child tax credit], and there’s ways to do it and we’ll be very reasonable about it.”

Individual Republican senators have significant influence over the plan as the party works to move it through the Senate while holding only a narrow majority. Republicans control 52 Senate seats and need 50 votes to pass the tax bill, as Vice President Mike Pence could be called on to break a tie. Pence’s staff on Thursday announced he would postpone a planned trip to Israel and Egypt next week to be available for the tax vote.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who voted against the Senate version of the bill because of its projected additions to the deficit, says he’s reviewing the final version but is expected to oppose it as well. With Democrats unanimously opposed to the plan, Republicans can afford to lose no more than two members of their caucus in a final vote.

Top Republicans expressed hope Rubio could eventually be won over.

“He’s really been a great guy, very supportive,” Trump said while taking questions after a speech. “I think that Senator Rubio will be there.”

“Well, we’re concerned about it,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said of Rubio’s request. “But you know, we’ve got to deal with the art of the doable. But I think we can resolve that problem. I sure hope so.”

The change Rubio is seeking would add tens of billions of dollars in new tax breaks for millions of low-income and working-class families, further squeezing negotiators as they struggle to comply with Senate rules that block the bill from adding more than $1.5 trillion over a decade to the national deficit.

Earlier Thursday, Hatch said the party was considering a plan that would shorten the duration of the bill’s planned tax cuts for individuals, a change that would cut the measure’s overall tax breaks for middle-class and working-class families.

The shortened duration would free up more revenue Republicans could use to pay for new tax breaks they’re adding in the compromise package to their overhaul, but it could also heighten complaints that the bill prioritizes cuts for corporations over households.

The additional revenue is needed because Republicans are seeking to lower the top tax rate paid by wealthiest Americans, ratchet back proposed curbs on the deductions of state and local taxes, and scale back proposed tax rules for investment income. All of these changes are expected to add more than $200 billion to the cost of the bill, which is one reason GOP leaders have said they don’t have much flexibility to address Rubio’s demands.

Under of the Senate version of the tax plan, many of the cuts and credits for individuals are set to phase out in 2025, but Republicans are considering moving the expiration date to 2024.

Republicans have said that the expiring tax cuts for families and individuals would eventually be extended by a future Congress because they will prove popular, but they need to make them temporary to comply with budget rules.

The backbone of the Republican tax plan is a massive cut to the corporate tax rate, but it would also pare an inheritance tax paid almost exclusively by the very wealthy and cut taxes for millions of other businesses — ranging from small stores to large, wealthy firms — that pay taxes through the individual tax code. Individuals, including the middle class, working class and poor, would see more uneven benefits, with many getting a tax break but some losing out as the breaks expired or certain deductions were shrunk or eliminated.

Republicans, including Trump, have touted their plan as a middle-class tax cut, but by further shortening the duration of individual tax cuts while leaving most corporate rate cuts permanent, the GOP could bolster Democrats’ argument that the package is tilted in favor of the wealthy and corporations.

Nonpartisan analysts have supported that assessment of the GOP plan, and polling suggests the public broadly shares that perception.

Trump and Rubio have a history. They faced off during the GOP primary in 2015 and 2016 and launched nasty, personal attacks against each other. Rubio is seen as considering a future presidential run. He has never fully embraced the type of bareknuckle politics that Trump likes to employ, even saying later he regretted efforts during the campaign to mirror Trump’s attacks.

Rubio and Lee hope their proposed change to the child tax credit would address some of those concerns by giving more credits to the low-income families.

The Republican plan would increase the child tax credit from up to $1,000 per child under existing law to up to $2,000. But Rubio and Lee want to change the credit’s rules to extend additional benefits to families who pay payroll taxes but do not make enough to owe any income tax.

Rubio has been negotiating with the GOP leaders tasked with crafting the final bill, and on Wednesday they said they could increase the tax credit in the final bill by about $13 billion, according to a person with knowledge of the private negotiations. Rubio had pressed for the tax credit to be bolstered by, at a minimum, between $30 billion and $40 billion.