Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., suggested Friday that former President Ronald Reagan would not be a fan of President Trump’s and Congressional Republican’s push for tax reform and would consider it a “absolute catastrophe.”
In particular, Schumer took aim at the GOP plan not to work on a bipartisan basis and instead use the reconciliation process to pass a bill. On Thursday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said that Democrats won’t help Republicans pass a tax bill after not being consulted.
“1986 tax reform went through an extensive, bipartisan process on the road to passage by a bipartisan majority whereas Trump’s tax plan has been crafted by one party, in secret, and will be rushed through Congress with hardly any debate,” Schumer said in the USA Today.
“The healthy, years-long debate that characterized tax reform in 1986 is a far cry from this process of secrecy, silence and reckless speed,” Schumer said. “In 1991, Trump told Congress that Reagan’s 1986 tax reform bill was an “absolute catastrophe.” If Reagan were here today to learn about Trump’s tax plan, I think he would return the sentiment.”
Schumer has been a critic in recent weeks of the tax reform push as Senate Republicans pass their budget last week, which the House ultimately passed on Thursday by a slim 216-212 margin.
Of the 19 “no votes” yesterday, most came from members in New Jersey and New York who are against the elimination of the state and local tax deduction in the current plan.
Republicans are set to release legislation of the tax plan next week and are hopeful to pass a bill by the end of the year.
