Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer predicted Wednesday that the Republican effort to pass a major tax package would fail, and he previewed a line of attack centered around the claim that the bill would raise taxes for low-income earners.
“The Republicans are going to have the same problem with tax reform that they had with healthcare,” the New York Democrat said, referring to the failed GOP effort to replace Obamacare.
“The public will be equally strong against this plan that is so perverse in helping the wealthy and hurting the middle class, and it will fail,” Schumer said. The Trump administration and Republican leaders published the plan on Wednesday.
Schumer said 30 to 50 Republican lawmakers would rebel against the tax plan, on the grounds that it would raise their constituents’ taxes.
Schumer zeroed in on the GOP plan to double the standard deduction, but eliminate personal exemptions and raise the lowest bracket tax rate from 10 percent to 12 percent.
Republicans have said they will leave it to the tax-writing committees to write legislative language to ensure that low-income families get a tax cut, combined with a larger child credit.
But Democrats quickly said Wednesday that the upshot would be a tax hike.
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, called the GOP claim that the standard deduction would provide tax relief a “shell game.”
“Larger families in America are going to see the most harm,” Wyden said, referring to the loss of exemptions for dependents in the plan.
