Three Republican senators have signaled they might oppose their party’s tax bill Wednesday, providing the first serious obstacle to a measure that had been speeding toward passage in the Senate.
After Senate Finance Committee chairman Orrin Hatch unveiled a revised version of the bill late Tuesday night that made many individual tax cuts temporary, Republicans began to grumble.
Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, said he opposed the current versions of the Senate and House tax bills because of their treatment of non-corporate businesses.
Susan Collins of Maine, one of the most centrist Senate Republicans, disapproved of a change in the bill that would repeal Obamacare’s individual mandate.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea from either a political or policy perspective,” Collins said in an interview on MSNBC. Undoing the mandate, she said, would have complex effects on the healthcare system, and doesn’t make sense in the context of an already-complicated tax bill.
“I’m not going to make a final decision on the tax bill ‘til I look at all the provisions,” she added.
Meanwhile, during an on-stage interview with the New York Times Wednesday evening, Tennessee’s Bob Corker issued a warning about the bill’s impact on the federal deficit.
“If I believe it’s going to add to the deficit, I’m not going to vote for it,” he said.
As scored by Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation, the Senate version of the bill would be a $1.4 trillion tax cut over a decade. Corker said he would willing to consider that the reform could spur faster economic growth, making up that revenue loss, but warned that he would vote against the bill if he felt the “growth assumptions were out of line.”
Asked if he was a “no” on the bill, Corker simply responded, “we’ll see.”
With only 52 Republicans in the upper chamber, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can only lose two votes and still pass tax legislation. In the event of a 50-50 tie, Vice President Mike Pence would give the win to GOP leaders as the tie-breaking vote.
None of the three Republicans said they are looking to halt the bill’s progress, and instead suggested that they would like to improve it.
The bill could be amended in the Finance Committee, where it is scheduled for further consideration Thursday, or on the Senate floor. Republicans plan to make further changes when the Senate and House go to conference.
