The House Has Passed A $1.5 Trillion Tax Overhaul, Which Is Set To Clash With The Senate’s Version

Republicans grew one step closer to securing the first major legislative achievement of the Trump presidency after the House passed a GOP tax bill that drastically rewrites the country’s tax code and provides $1.5 trillion in cuts for businesses and individuals.

However, the House’s bill isn’t directly in alignment with the Senate bill that is currently being worked on in the Finance Committee. The two legislative bodies will have to agree on a bill in order to avoid a repeat of Republicans’ repeated failures to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Via the New York Times:

The House tax bill, which passed in the Ways and Means Committee last week, would cut taxes more than $1.4 trillion over 10 years. It cuts the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent, collapses the number of tax brackets to four from seven, switches the United States to an international tax system that is more in line with the rest of the world, and eliminates or scales back many popular deductions, including one for state and local taxes paid.

Though the bill passed, several Republicans from high-tax states like New York and New Jersey voted “no” because the new plan eliminates deductions for state and local taxes. Several noted that these states would actually be paying for the cuts that would be seen elsewhere in the country.

In the Senate, where the Republican majority is far narrower than in the House, there is far less wiggle room for Republicans to lose votes. According to analysis by a congressional tax committee, low-income Americans would see their taxes increase by 2021 and all Americans would see a tax increase by 2027 under the Senate’s current plan. So far, Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson is the only member of his party to come out against the Senate bill, but the votes of several others are also far from guaranteed.

(Via New York Times)