Upbeat Republicans announced their plan to reform the tax code by the end of the year in a way that lowers rates and makes it possible for most people to file their taxes on a postcard, one day after crashing on an attempt to repeal Obamacare.
“We are going to do it,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said at a press conference announcing the plan. “We are tired of things going the way they are going and we are going to try to turn this mess around.”
It’s not clear whether Hatch was referring to the complicated and burdensome tax code or the state of congressional Republicans, who have so far failed to put many major accomplishments behind them since assuming the majority in both chambers in January under a Republican president.
Senate Republicans on Tuesday pulled the plug on a last-ditch attempt to repeal Obamacare before a Sept. 30 deadline. They pledged to try again, but not until next year.
Republicans were ready to move on tax reform Wednesday, which many believe has a better chance of winning approval within their own party.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said Congress passed the last tax overhaul 31 years ago and since then, it has become more complicated and hurtful to the middle class.
“It’s too big, it’s too complicated, it’s too expensive,” Ryan said. “Today we are taking the next steps to liberate Americans from our broken tax code.”
There is no tax legislation yet, but merely an outline that lowers corporate and some individual rates while eliminating certain deductions as well as the unpopular alternative minimum tax and the estate tax.
The plan, revealed at a GOP retreat Wednesday, earned immediate condemnation from Democrats, who said it would do more to benefit the wealthy while adding to the deficit.
Republicans said they are still hopeful Democrats will work with them on legislation, which is coming in October from the House Ways and Means Committee.
“I hope there will be some Democrats who are willing to work with us because this is what they say they are for,” Sen. John Thune, the No. 3 Senate Republican, said. “If they are really for middle-income tax relief, why won’t they join hands with us and make it possible for the American people?”
The outline has so far earned praise from the two House GOP conservative factions as well as the Tea Party group FreedomWorks.
Some changes are expected, lawmakers said, which is where defections could start building.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., who is head of the House Freedom Caucus, came out in favor of the bill Wednesday but on Tuesday warned he would not vote for a bill that imposed a corporate tax rate greater than 20 percent.
That’s where the rate is set now under the GOP outline.
Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said the House plans to finish the bill this year.
Republicans have been proposing tax reform for years, led by Ryan, who has been chairman of both the House Budget and Ways and Means panels.
“The Ways and Means Committee is ready to turn this framework into legislation that President Trump can ultimately sign this year,” Brady said. “We are closer than ever to finishing what we started for the American people.”
