Lawmakers bicker over tax bill’s effect on middle class
WASHINGTON — House Republicans and Democrats bickered heatedly Monday over whether the GOP tax bill truly helps the middle class, as the Ways and Means Committee kicked off a marathon session to amend and vote on the far-reaching legislation President Donald Trump hopes to sign into law by year’s end.
Republicans focused on findings by Congress’ nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation that the bill would lower taxes across all income levels over the next several years.
“Clearly this is helping real people. It’s helping teachers, it’s helping students, it’s helping struggling families that are living paycheck to paycheck,” said GOP Rep. Erik Paulsen of Minnesota.
Democrats returned repeatedly to a section of the analysis showing taxes would actually go up beginning in 2023 for some 38 million taxpayers or families making $20,000 to $40,000 a year.
“There are a lot of people expecting a tax cut who would be big losers under this bill,” proclaimed Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell of New Jersey. “This is a joke and you’ve got to face up to it.”
At stake is whether the GOP will succeed in passing the most sweeping rewrite of the tax code in decades, which would be a major achievement for congressional Republicans and Trump after a year largely devoid of legislative wins. And looking ahead to 2018 midterms when Democrats will aim to wrest back control of the House from the GOP, each side is trying to win the political debate over who is truly looking out for middle-class Americans.
The legislation adds $1.5 trillion to the ballooning national debt, delivers a major tax cut to corporations, and repeals the estate tax, which would benefit a tiny percentage of the wealthiest families in the country. It also simplifies the loophole-ridden tax code by collapsing today’s seven personal income tax brackets into four, nearly doubles the standard deduction used by people who don’t itemize, and increases the child tax credit.
Despite the various analyses, Republicans argued vociferously that the legislation is targeted toward the middle class.
“It’s about making America’s economy stronger than ever by delivering more jobs, fairer taxes and bigger paychecks across the nation,” said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas.
Late Monday, Brady proposed additional changes, including restoring a tax break for employees who receive child care benefits from their employers and limiting the bill’s impact on universities with large endowments.
The committee’s top Democrat, Richard Neal of Massachusetts, countered that the bill “puts the wellconnected first while forcing millions of American families to watch while their taxes go up.”
Meanwhile, a group of Democratic senators is set to huddle with a top White House official to discuss potential changes to the Republican tax plan, according to people familiar with the meeting.
Marc Short, the White House director of legislative affairs, and Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, are set to meet on Tuesday with several Democrats, including Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, according to multiple aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private meetings.