Senate moves tax bill to brink of passage
President Trump could sign the GOP’s massive $1.5 trillion tax plan as soon as today, as the House and Senate scrambled to move the bill to his desk and give Republicans a much-needed legislative triumph just before Christmas.
The Senate narrowly passed the legislation on a party-line vote, 51-48, after midnight with protesters interrupting with chants of “kill the bill, don’t kill us” and Vice President Mike Pence repeatedly calling for order. Upon passage, Republicans cheered, with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin among them.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) insisted Americans would respond positively to the tax bill.
“If we can’t sell this to the American people, we ought to go into another line of work,” he said. Trump hailed the vote in an early morning tweet and promised a White House news conference today after the House completes legislative action on the measure.
The early morning vote came hours after the GOP rammed the bill through the House, 227-203. But it wasn’t the final word in Congress because of one last hiccup.
Three provisions in the bill, including its title, violated Senate rules, forcing the Senate to vote to strip them out. So the massive bill was hauled back across the Capitol for the House to vote again today, and Republicans have a chance to celebrate again.
Congressional Republicans, who faltered badly in trying to dismantle Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, see passage of the tax bill as crucial to proving to Americans they can govern — and imperative for holding onto House and Senate majorities in next year’s midterm elections.
“The proof will be in the paychecks,” Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said during the Senate’s nighttime debate. “This is real tax relief, and it’s needed.”
Not so, said the top Senate Democrat as the long, late hours led to testy moments.
“This is serious stuff. We believe you are messing up America,” New York Sen. Chuck Schumer told Republicans,
U.S. Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) said during last night’s Senate debate, “It’s a con job. It’s a masquerade, a trojan horse in order to get a tax break for the upper one-percentile.”
During the first House vote, gleeful Republicans cheered as “yes” votes rolled in, and Ryan emerged shaking hands as the measure crossed the threshold needed for passage. Some protesters in the House gallery could be heard chanting, “Shame!”
After the vote, a triumphant Ryan dramatically slammed the gavel in celebratory confirmation as Republicans stood up and applauded.
Trump tweeted just moments after the first House vote: “Congratulations to Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, Kevin Brady, Steve Scalise, Cathy McMorris Rodgers and all great House Republicans who voted in favor of cutting your taxes!”
U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III missed the House vote yesterday. A Kennedy aide said he was in Massachusetts, where he and his wife, Lauren, are imminently expecting their second child.
The GOP tax plan would cut the corporate rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. Individual tax rates would also be reduced across all brackets, but Democrats claim the proposal would be a sweetheart deal for the wealthiest Americans.