House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady on Sunday defended his tax plan after President Trump reportedly told Senate Democrats on Tuesday they would like the Senate Republicans’ proposal “a whole lot more.”
“I know that’s the Senate Democrats’ description of the call. All I can tell you is my conversations by telephone with the president are extremely positive,” Brady, R-Texas, told “Fox News Sunday.” “His regular conversations with me tell me he likes the direction we are going in a big way.”
GOP members in the Senate unveiled their tax plan on Thursday to generally positive reviews.
The House and the Senate will take up their individual measures this week in the race to pass legislation by the end of 2017.
Brady said the House was still “on schedule” to pass a bill by Thanksgiving, despite adding his caucus would not accept the Senate’s elimination of all local and state deductions.
“I’m convinced that this is where we’re going to end up because it’s important, again, as I told you Chris, to make sure people keep more of what they earn, even in these high tax states,” Brady told host Chris Wallace.
“What we are working toward and what we are work[ing] so carefully with are lawmakers from New York and California, New Jersey, to make sure we deliver this relief, and I’m committed to it.”
Brady conceded there was also daylight between the two chambers on the issue of the estate tax and the timeline for cutting the corporate tax rate, but he was adamant “there’s far more common ground.”
He also hit back at analysis that suggested some members of the middle class would suffer a tax hike rather than a cut, as well as at criticism over the $1.5 trillion his bill is estimated to add to the national debt.
