Will the House Pass the Tax Reform Bill Within the Next Week?
WASHINGTON D.C. - Republicans inch towards tax reform, but many obstacles are still in their way. Legislation is expected to receive voting on the House floor this week as well as clear the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.
With republicans opposed to the bill in single digits, and Paul Ryan ready to meet the ambitious timeline to introduce the bill in early November and pass by Thanksgiving, the Republican Party would be surprised if the bill didn't pass.
The pressure is mounting for the GOP with the failure to repeal ObamaCare. If they fail to pass two of their main goals as a party, the midterm elections could look very similar to the Virginia primary.
“I think a lot of people in Washington are taking a message from the Virginia elections that voters are discontent with the lack of policy progress in Washington," said Scott Hodge, president of the Tax Foundation. "And I think that's provided some urgency to both the House and the Senate to get this tax-reform plan to the president's desk before Christmas."
Senate Republicans released their own tax bill on Thursday, it fully repeals the state and local tax deduction. This would be unacceptable to many House Republicans from blue states, including some who may vote for the House bill.
The main difference between the two bills to many conservatives is the repeal of the estate tax and cutting of corporate tax rate. In the House, the full repeal of the state and local tax deduction that the Senate proposed, would be unacceptable. The Senate also does not repeal the estate tax and delays until 2019 cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent. The House slashes the corporate rate much more quickly.
Speaker Ryan made it clear that if both chambers pass tax bills, they would go to a conference committee rather than the House simply voting on the Senate’s measure. This means that the House would break into smaller committees to review and vote on the bill. This makes it easier to fail but also gives the representatives a chance to edit and add to the bill.
Stocks closed last week lower across the board. The signs are troubling that congressional lawmakers could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Economic guru Ron Insana says President Trump’s tax-reform blueprint is “deeply flawed”. “It will wreck the housing market; it's punitive to every high-tax blue state in the nation (maybe purposely so); it's anti-family and now, with the repeal of the Affordable Care Act potentially imbedded in the House version, there will be tens of millions of Americans without health insurance, unlike their peers in Congress,” Insana wrote for CNBC.com. Insana wrote that Washington should save a tax cut for a rainy day, when economic growth has stalled. The unemployment rate is the lowest it has been in over 20 years and our economy is moving. So do we need a bill to overturn all the work from the last 30 years?
