President Trump said if Congress cannot complete tax reform this year, he favors them skipping the end-of-the-year holiday vacations.
“If they can’t get this tax bill done this year, should they forego Thanksgiving and Christmas?” Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo asked in an interview that will air Sunday. “Should they be here if they don’t have a bill on your desk by Thanksgiving?”
“Well I think they should and I think they will,” Trump responded. “I think a lot of things are happening unless, you know, it’s going to be right after that. But I don’t even like them leaving. But I will say this, I want to get it by the end of the year but I’d be very disappointed if it took that long.”
Trump’s comments come after he seemed to leave the door open to an extended timeline into 2018 during a press conference earlier this week. Also, the White House laid out an aggressive timeline in which it hopes tax reform legislation could reach Trump’s desk by Thanksgiving.
Further adding to a sense of urgency, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., head of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, warned back in August that if tax reform wasn’t finalized by Thanksgiving, “it isn’t going to happen.”
House Republicans are facing pressure from businesses and conservative groups to pass the Senate version of the 2018 budget so they can move forward with tax reform. If House Republicans passed the Senate budget, Republicans could move forward with tax reform in a matter of days. However, this would mean they also would be giving up on language that would move towards billions of dollars in spending cuts.
Trump appears to favor the fast route.
“It could be substantially less than that depending on what happens when we send the bill back to the House,” Trump told Bartiromo. “You know, they’ll send it back and people are going to go and make 200 suggestions as opposed to maybe no suggestions because it’s a great bill. It’s going to be a great bill. And we’re adjusting.”
Tax reform is meant to go through the special reconciliation process unlocked by the budget. This would prevent Senate Democrats from filibustering.
