With Election Day Closing In, GOP Plans To Unveil 'Tax Reform 2.0'
House Republicans are planning a sequel to last year’s blockbuster tax cut bill, and in Washington circles, the title being bandied about is “Tax Reform 2.0”
House GOP leaders this month will be proposing legislation that would make individual cuts passed last year permanent and also ease rules around retirement, CNBC reported.
House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady of Texas drafted the bill, Politico reported.
The so-called “Tax Reform 2.0” is intended to augment the 2017 tax cuts that gave corporations a permanent break, but individuals one that expires in 2025, according to Independent Journal Review.
Republican leaders “certainly directed us from the get-go to be ready to move this in September,” Brady said last week, according to Politico. “It’s full steam ahead.”
Brady said the final form of the new tax plan has not been determined.
However, House Speaker Paul Ryan said last week that legislation on the tax cuts will reach the House floor this month, Fox Business Network reported last week.
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise said part of the package is a vital bit of unfinished business.
“Because of Senate rules, some of the tax cuts had to be temporary,” the Louisiana Republican said, according to FBN. “We wanted to make them all permanent, and in fact in our bill we will make those tax cuts permanent.”
Coming a few weeks before the midterm elections, there is a political dimension to any tax legislation being introduced.
“Any time we’re talking about tax cuts and the growing economy, we’re winning,” said Matt Gorman, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, according to Reuters.
However, the initial round of tax cuts had some unpopular elements in it when it capped the federal deduction for state and local tax payments and also put a strain on federal efforts to balance the budget.
“Adding another several hundred billion dollars to the deficit is something that I think some Republicans are going to really think hard about,” said John Gimigliano, who heads federal tax legislative and regulatory services at KPMG LLP. “Passage is not automatic.”
One commentator said passage in 2018 is not essential.
“My feeling is that it’s fine. It is certainly smart to make the tax cuts permanent, but it is not urgent, because those don’t expire for many years,” said Stephen Moore, a distinguished visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and informal economic adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign.
“I would still support the bill because it is probably a good thing for Republicans to always be on the offensive on cutting taxes.”
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