09/27/2018

House Expected to Vote on Tax 2.0 This Week

Even if it passes the House, it faces long odds in the Senate

This week, the House is expected to vote on a package of bills known as “Tax 2.0” that, among other things, would make permanent the individual tax cuts in last year’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).

While House leaders view a second round of tax cuts to be politically popular in advance of the November elections, the package is not without controversy. Among the individual tax changes in the new tax law is a $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions. The SALT cap, which under the TCJA is set to expire in 2025, has raised an outcry in certain high-tax states like California, New York and New Jersey. Democrats in those states have made the SALT cap a campaign issue, arguing that the provision will cost their constituents billions in annual tax deductions.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) said this week that some of the polling and media reports that the tax law is unpopular is “misleading” and that the tax law has greatly contributed to the strong economy.

“Everyone feels so much more optimistic about their job prospects, about their potential for increased paychecks and certainly now we’re seeing investments come back to America rather than jobs leaving overseas,” Brady said. “Republicans running on a conservative agenda of people keeping more of what they earn and small businesses keeping more of what they earn permanently helps them in those reelections.”

House Democrats have attacked the tax law as primarily benefiting corporations and high-income earners; they have said Tax 2.0 is more of the same.

“Our candidates are finding all over America that the American people believe these tax bills are for the rich and not for them,” House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told reporters this week.

Even if Tax 2.0 is approved in the House, it faces long odds in the Senate where it would need Democratic support.

This article was provided to OSAE by the Power of A and ASAE's Inroads.