US House Passes $620 Billion Tax Bill

Lawmakers voted 318-109 for the $622 billion measure, which is a step toward avoiding a government shutdown.

Tax credits for college expenses, child costs and lower-earning families are set to become permanent, as would cuts for companies that do research or buy equipment.

The tax proposal is the first of a two-part deal reached by congressional Republican and Democratic leaders this week. As Yuval Levin notes at National Review, the bill “offers evidence of both parties setting the stage for the next health-care debate, and the Democrats acknowledging that such a debate won’t exactly start from Obamacare as we know it as an established premise”. While some Democrats said it was an opportunity to make family tax breaks permanent, others complained it was too skewed toward business.

Opponents said the bill would explode the deficit and leave Congress with less money in the future to pay for important domestic programs.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said it has “massive giveaways to the special interests” that are unpaid for. And while he says he will vote for the package, Maine Sen.

Backing the measure were 241 Republicans and 77 Democrats, while three Republicans and 106 Democrats opposed it.

Pelosi added that many of her members are particularly concerned that the bill would roll back the ban on oil exports.

When asked Thursday why the government spending bill does not defund Planned Parenthood, Ryan said the only way to get the bill to the president’s desk is through reconciliation, which limits what types of provisions can be included in the bill.

Presidential politics provided a bit of background music in the Senate. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican running for president, who said on the campaign trail that he wanted to try to slow things down. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., scheduled the votes for Friday anyway. “Divided government dictates that so we want him to have as strong a hand as he possibly can”. But he said it “advances conservative priorities” by cutting taxes and boosting defense spending. And GOP presidential candidate Marco Rubio, a Florida senator, suggested Thursday he wants to use procedural tactics to keep the bill from passing quickly, though an agreement among Senate leaders makes that impossible. Together, the two bills would pare taxes by $680 billion over 10 years.

In a win for Republicans, tucked into the two bills were provisions delaying controversial taxes associated with ObamaCare.

Wolf’s administration and House Democrats could not give details Thursday morning about any outreach to House Republicans.

In exchange for GOP insistence on lifting the 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports, which is in the spending bill, Senate Democrats demanded a number of tax breaks for renewable energy, like solar and wind.

But the package also includes a hodgepodge of specialty tax breaks for thoroughbred racehorse owners, NASCAR racetrack developers and makers of Puerto Rican rum. People in the seven states without income taxes could deduct local sales taxes on their federal returns.

The tax package extends or makes permanent 233 pages’ worth of tax breaks, both large and small.