Senate passes sweeping GOP tax plan in early hours of Saturday morning
The Senate passed its own tax reform bill in the wee hours of Saturday morning, following a day filled with Republican leaders making changes to bring enough members on board and a long night filled with heated rhetoric on both sides of the aisle. The vote was 51-49, largely along party lines. Congressional negotiators continued to make modifications to the bill -- including handwriting alterations on into the record -- up until only hours before the final vote, with Democrats sharply criticizing Republicans for not devoting members sufficient time to browse the sweeping legislation that would overhaul the US tax system.
The House of Representatives approved its own tax reform plan last month, and also the two chambers are expected to go to conference to reconcile the two bills, but passing the legislation Saturday was a huge success for Senate Republicans and President Donald Trump, both looking for significant legislative accomplishments.
Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, an integral holdout, declared just after noon that he would back the plan. The Republicans might pass the laws together with 50 members and a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Mike Pence, however afterwards Sen. Susan Collins of Maine announced her service Friday afternoon, Pence's would-be vote was unnecessary, as Collins' vote brought the tally to 51. Sen . Bob Corker of Tennessee is the only anticipated Republican to vote no.
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In a public statement announcing his service, Flake said he was given claims from Senate GOP leadership and the Trump administration for a "growth-oriented legislative solution" to protect recipients of their Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Tensions were running high from the Senate, where Republican tax writers were reworking the tax invoice, attempting to find a way to satisfy competing interests and shore up votes.
The bill received a significant boost Friday morning when Daines announced he'd back the invoice, after he had been assured of "significant tax relief for Main Street businesses."
Senate Republicans met before in the Strom Thurmond Room of the Capitol to keep the bill negotiation Friday morning. Collins, a key undecided vote, '' said GOP leaders are still "working through some more of my issues" however as she had been walking toward the conference meeting, she said, "We're making great progress."
But behind the scenes, Republican members and aides were fuming at Corker, that had been demanding last-minute offsets for the GOP tax bill out of fear that it would raise the shortage. Corker's demands were not completely new, but had been crystallized further Thursday afternoon when the Joint Committee on Taxation, the independent taxation scorekeeper, declared that even with projected economic growth, the Republican tax bill nevertheless would add more than $1 trillion to the deficit over ten years. Then, Corker discovered that a trigger he demanded from the taxation bill that would automatically raise taxes if the tax legislation didn't generate the growth which Republicans anticipated, would not pass Senate rules and could not be included.
Bob Corker's $1 trillion tax reform problem. The news led to Corker holding court on the Senate floor off and on for nearly an hour because a change vote was held open and dozens of reporters full the Senate chamber to see the drama unfold from over. As CNN reported before Thursday, a throng of Republicans encircled Corker and Flake as Sen. Pat Toomey, a member on the Senate Finance Committee who has cut prices with Corker on the taxation invoice already, stood next to Corker, explaining something at length.
At one stage, the Senate's Parliamentarian came over and Corker used his hands to attempt and convey a point to her for several minutes. Corker walked round the room to speak with Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine. The two men looked over some papers, then walked back over the Republican huddle. Corker requested more questions. At one point Toomey grew audibly frustrated, this time standing face-to-face together with the Tennessee Republican.
"Furious," one aide responded when asked how GOP senators were reacting behind closed doors to that which Corker did on the floor. "did not need to be done openly. Didn't have to cause a scene. We know that it's a problem. Repair it behind closed doors."
At the moment, according to aides, employees and senators are working through a number of distinct proposals to attempt to address Corker's problems -- problems that grew more problematic with the JCT report. Corker, according to aides, desires even more revenue than the trigger would have snapped into impact.
"If the trigger does not work, you need to come up with, I believe, $350 billion," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina. "This makes everything different. So, we will get there, because failure's not an option."
There were a few possibilities for getting back the revenue, but none of them would suit the whole conference. 1 option, Texas Sen. John Cornyn floated, is to gradually increase the corporate tax rate, which Republicans had intended to lower to 20%. That would definitely upset House Republicans and Trump that had lobbied aggressively to drop the corporate tax rate to 15 percent. The other option was not to completely counter the alternative minimum tax, a levy which is used to ensure wealthy folks cannot just use tax loopholes to avoid paying taxes all together. But Republicans were still working on how to place the pieces together.
McConnell can afford to lose two Republican senators, but with numerous competing concerns, leadership will have to make tough decisions regarding who to appease based on the math. Flake unites Corker in sharing concerns about the shortage and GOP aides state leaders now view Corker and Flake as a package deal, meaning that they either assuage their worries, or figure out a way to not lose any other senators if they would like to pass the bill in any way. Johnson had tried to lobby leadership to offer so-called pass-throughs -- companies that pass gains to owners that pay taxes on the other hand -- additional tax breaks.
Collins, who had been a crucial "no" vote on health care also must be won over. Collins has asked leadership and the Trump government to promise her that they will support a package that she says would help stabilize the Obamacare marketplace after Republicans repeal the respective mandate in their own tax bill. She has also asked leadership to include a provision that would allow people to deduct state and local property taxes up to $10,000.
The situation leadership faces today isn't all that unlike the one they found themselves in on medical care. In case McConnell appeases Johnson and boosts the tax break for pass-throughs (which costs money), he could alienate Corker and Flake who have lobbied to make the tax invoice less costly.
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