Senate GOP tax plan hits deficit snag, leaving leaders scrambling
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/2017/11/30/c2118302-d5e7-11e7-a986-d0a9770d9a3e_story.html?utm_term=.7d2fba3cbdfd
Senate leadership, who had hoped to vote to pass the $1.5 trillion tax bill by late Thursday night, instead sent lawmakers home and began to search for a new way to offset the cost of the legislation. They are looking to win the support of several senators, including Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who has led a small group of colleagues in demanding that the bill not drive up the nation’s debt.
The new tension threatens to undercut what had been an unusual degree of unity within the GOP, with even Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who has repeatedly defied his party, announcing support for the bill Thursday.
Republicans are scrambling for a path forward as the result of two successive setbacks suffered Thursday as they moved toward a vote. First, the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’s nonpartisan scorekeeper, reported that the tax bill would not generate nearly as much economic growth over the next 10 years as Republicans had expected. As a result, the nation’s deficit would be $1 trillion higher.
Then, the Senate parliamentarian ruled that a Corker-backed proposal to automatically raise taxes in the future if Republican expectations of higher growth did not materialize was not consistent with Senate rules.
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This thing may implode yet.
= new reply since forum marked as read
