Intra-party fight

Earlier this year, conservative senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) worked tirelessly in a bipartisan effort to craft what’s widely regarded as the most conservative and restrictive immigration-related bill in decades.

It went nowhere. House Speaker Mike Johnson announced the bill dead on arrival in the House—after Donald Trump made it clear that he didn’t want the issue settled before the election, which would’ve given Joe Biden a win.

Now the shoe is on the other foot. Instead of House Republicans throwing sand in the gears of a Republican-led bill in the Senate, Republican senators are doing the same to a House Republican-backed bill on taxes.

Is it payback? We don’t know. But these days, would anybody be surprised?

The Republican-led House passed an overwhelmingly bipartisan bill to expand the child tax credit and reinstate a set of business tax breaks worth $78 billion—by a vote of 357-72.

All four of Arkansas’ members voted with the majority. Good for them.

However, Republicans in the Senate are standing in the way because they say they believe the bill is too generous to low-income families. Backers of the bill had hoped to pass the legislation in time for the upcoming tax season, but the stalemate inevitably makes it more difficult to pass any major legislation this election year.

The package would expand the child tax credit and restore a set of tax breaks related to business research costs, capital expenses and interest. It would also boost a tax credit encouraging the development of low-income housing, tax relief for disaster victims and tax breaks for Taiwanese workers and companies operating in the United States, according to The New York Times.

Further, the bill would be financed by reining in the employee retention tax credit, a pandemic-era program that has become a magnet for fraud.

Senate Republicans have also complained they were cut out of the deal, since it was reached and presented by Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

Wyden, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, said, “The American people want to see a bipartisan effort that gets to yes. The clock is ticking, and families are waiting for this help. They’re telling members of Congress they want to see this done.”

There’s no doubt, according to public opinion polls, that the American people are fed up with hyper-partisanship. Imagine how fed up they’ll be when they realize bipartisanship has actually made at least some strides on certain issues, but the two houses can’t agree, no matter who’s in charge.