House OKs year-end budget deal; sends legislation to Senate

It’s a Trojan horse and they’re using it to shift jobs overseas. “I think it’s legislation worth supporting”. Dozens of previously temporary tax breaks, such as the research and development tax credit, will now be permanent. That bill also includes some tax provisions.

The measure gives him numerous spending increases he’s demanded all year. Public opinion polls blamed Republicans for the turmoil, and the party under Ryan – elected October 29 to replace John Boehner – wants to avoid a repeat with the 2016 presidential election approaching, to show that Republicans can govern.

It was passed Thursday afternoon 318-109, with 77 Democrats joining with 241 Republicans to pass the measure.

House lawmakers are slated to vote Thursday on a package of breaks, known as extenders. “If we go back to continuing resolutions, it’s going to get ugly in a hurry”, said Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.).

Coupled with tax provisions that House leaders stuffed into the spending bill to attract votes, the legislation would cost the government an estimated $680 billion over the next decade. Their votes for the bill were key because it was believed the GOP could provide only about 100 votes for the deal so Democrats would need to provide the rest to make it to the necessary 218 vote threshold. But the House vote on the appropriations package, which will occur Friday morning (Dec. 18), could be close.

“This bill is a piecemeal approach to tax reform”.

Democrats support several of the tax breaks, including the $1,000 child tax credit and others to encourage business investment and fight poverty.

The package included tax cuts favored by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, although some Democrats complained the bill is tilted in favor of businesses and expressed concerns about the cost.

Although Pelosi does not support that policy, she argued that Democratic leaders were able to secure in the deal policies they support by not seeking to block the inclusion of the export-ban language. But she said Republicans’ “desperate thirst for lifting the oil export ban empowered Democrats to win significant concessions throughout the omnibus, including ridding the bill of scores of deeply destructive poison pill riders”.

House Republicans leaders turned against the outlines of a budget deal they helped negotiate with Wolf and the Senate, and on Wednesday they challenged the Democratic governor to come up with enough support to get an approximately $1.2 billion tax increase through the GOP-dominated House.

Many Democrats didn’t like the package because it ended a ban on exporting crude oil and didn’t offer any help to Puerto Rico, which is dealing with some seriously tough financial stuff.

“In 24 hours, we will discover out whether or not the tax votes are literally there within the Home”, stated Majority Chief Dave Reed (R., Indiana). More than 50 expiring tax cuts will be extended with more than 20 becoming permanent, including credits for companies’ expenditures for research and equipment purchases and reductions for lower-earning families and households with children and college students.

The bill freezes for two years the Medical Device Tax, which was created to help pay for the Affordable Care Act but drew bipartisan criticism for stifling the medical device industry.

Not everyone was on board.

Congress is about to add hundreds of billions of dollars to the national budget deficit, yet the “deficit hawks” on Capitol Hill are largely silent.

“What I’m telling everyone is, ‘I can’t vote for sales or income unless those guys share the pain, ‘” said Rep. Kate Harper, R-Montgomery.