Trump, Republicans buoyant as Congress votes on biggest tax changes in 30 years
Biggest changes in 30 years
THE REPUBLICAN-controlled US Congress began voting yesterday on the biggest overhaul of the US tax system in more than 30 years, with little standing in the way of the party’s first major legislative triumph under President Donald Trump.
The House of Representatives, which introduced initial tax legislation barely six weeks ago, was poised to act first with a vote scheduled for yesterday afternoon.
The Senate was set to follow last night or early today, after completing 10 hours of debate, legislators said.
With strict party-line votes expected in both chambers, passage appeared all but certain.
Republicans insist that the sweeping package of tax cuts for corporations, small businesses and individuals will boost economic and employment growth.
They also see the measure as key to having any hope of retaining their majorities in the House and Senate when voters go to the polls in November.
The end-of-year sprint towards passage represents a remarkable recovery of Republican fortunes since the middle of this year, when the party’s drive to dismantle former Democratic president Barack Obama’s Obamacare healthcare law crumbled in the Senate and prospects for a tax overhaul seemed doomed by party infighting.
Lingering doubts about the fate of the tax bill all but vanished on Monday after two of the last Senate Republicans holding out, Susan Collins and Mike Lee, agreed to support the legislation.
“I’m ready to vote,” Republican Senator John Kennedy told Reuters. “I felt like we should have voted this weekend.”
Democrats, who unanimously oppose the Republican bill, railed against it as a giveaway to corporations and the wealthy that would add $1.5 trillion (R19 trillion) to the federal debt over the next decade and deepen the US income gap between rich and poor.
“There are so many rip-offs in this bill that people are going to say this is some kind of new Gilded Age,” said Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate tax committee.
Opposed The House, where Republicans hold a 239-193 voting majority, was likely to see a smattering of “no” votes from Republican fiscal hawks and legislators from the high-tax states of New York, New Jersey and California who oppose a provision that would scale back a popular deduction for state and local taxes.
“It’s still a bill that’s going to give tax relief to other parts of America on the backs of New Yorkers. So I’m still going to vote ‘no’,” said Republican Representative Dan Donovan of New York.
The legislation would also repeal a federal fine imposed on Americans under Obamacare for not obtaining health insurance coverage, a change that could undermine the 2010 healthcare law, formally known as the Affordable Care Act.
Vice-President Mike Pence rescheduled a trip to Egypt and Israel for January to be on hand this week, just in case his tie-breaking voting power is needed to ensure the Senate’s passage of the tax bill.
Republicans, who control the 100-seat Senate by only a 52-48 margin, can afford to lose support from no more than two party legislators.
Republican Senator Jeff Flake was still undecided late on Monday. Senator John McCain, who has brain cancer, was spending time with his family in Arizona. – Reuters