The House won’t use next week’s tax filing deadline as a showcase for a bill making the new individual tax cuts permanent, and will instead delay that vote until the summer to pressure Democrats closer to the midterm elections, according to Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist.
Norquist said he has received assurances from the GOP leadership that the legislation to make the individual tax cuts permanent will be on the agenda by summertime, along with a measure that would require the states to recognize conceal carry firearm permits from anywhere in the U.S.
“A big vote on taxes and the Second Amendment, just as people are headed into the election, is the way to go,” Norquist told the Washington Examiner.
A report this week said Republican leaders backed off on a plan to move the tax cut bill to next week because GOP lawmakers did not want to vote on a measure that would add to the deficit, as a tax cut would do.
Republican leaders would not confirm Norquist’s timing prediction on either bill.
A spokeswoman for Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who schedules the floor action, said no date is set and the bill is “still being worked on.”
The tax bill is sponsored by Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill. It would make permanent the individual tax cuts, which under the new law will expire in 2026.
Republicans gave the cuts an expiration date to lower the cost of the bill to prevent running afoul of special Senate rules that allowed the GOP to circumvent a filibuster by the Democrats.
Democrats have seized on the expiration date, which does not apply to the new lower corporate tax rate.
Democrats warn the new law will result in a tax increase for most people. But Republicans argue that is only because of the expiration date they needed to attach to dodge a filibuster by Democrats.
Now the GOP wants to turn the tables and put Democrats on the record about their support for the individual cuts.
“We’re giving our friends on the other side of the aisle a chance to support permanent tax relief for working Americans,” Davis said when he introduced the legislation.
But Republicans are also worried about the debt and deficit. House and Senate Republicans are fielding significant criticism over their support for the $1.3 trillion fiscal 2018 spending bill, which would increase the deficit by $300 billion.
The Congressional Budget Office issued a dire warning last week about the ballooning debt and a Penn Wharton report last week gave a gloomy prediction about making the individual cuts permanent.
“Extending the individual-side tax cuts increases government debt by over $5 trillion by 2040 and actually reduces GDP during the first 10 years and beyond,” the report said.
But Norquist denied the tax bill was shelved over deficit fears and said the CBO report did not factor in strong economic growth and other economic benefits of the tax cuts.
Republicans contend growth will bring in new tax revenue to the Treasury, staving off a huge deficit increase.
“If you actually read the CBO report, the revenues are coming in way beyond their expectations,” Norquist said.
