US Republican Lawmakers Reach Broad Accord on Tax Cuts
"We're very, very close to a historic legislative victory," Trump declared as he sat next to key House and Senate lawmakers who crafted the tax accord over the last several days. "This bill is vital to the American people. It's a massive tax cut for the middle class."
The legislation would cut taxes by $1.5 trillion over the next decade, heavily weighted toward lower corporate taxation, and perhaps add $1 trillion or more to the country's long-term $20 trillion indebtedness to investors and foreign governments. Trump officials say millions of individual taxpayers, but not everyone, would see their annual tax obligation to the government cut, in many cases by a few hundred dollars, or in the case of wealthy taxpayers, by thousands of dollars.
The country's corporate tax rate, now at 35 percent and among the higher in the industrialized world, would be cut substantially, but Trump said a figure has yet to be agreed on. Trump had sought a cut to 20 percent, but he said, "If it got down to 21, I'd be very happy."
Trump said "this country was going in the wrong direction" on the economy when he took office last January. But the country's unemployment rate, now at 4.1 percent, is the lowest in 17 years, and major U.S. stock indexes have surged since Trump was elected, partly on a pledge to sharply cut corporate regulations, some of which he has carried out.
After hosting key lawmakers for lunch Wednesday at the White House, Trump planned to speak about the tax legislation later in the day.
Senate and House negotiators have to agree on final tax details before lawmakers in both chambers expect to vote on the bill in the coming days ahead of their annual Christmas recess, sending it to Trump for his signature. No Democrats have announced their support for the legislation, which they have attacked as a giveaway to corporations and the wealthiest of taxpayers, including Trump, a billionaire.
In one final draft of the legislation, the individual tax rate for the highest income earners would be cut from 39.6 percent to 37 percent.
With a Democrat, Doug Jones, winning a special Senate election Tuesday in Alabama, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer is asking that the final tax vote be delayed until January after Jones is sworn in. But Republicans appear intent on voting before then while they have one more Republican vote in the Senate.
The tax legislation would be the first major legislative achievement of Trump's nearly 11-month presidency after he and Republicans failed earlier this year to dismantle national health care policies championed by former President Barack Obama.