House passes $622 billion in tax breaks

The companion spending bill would provide $1.1 trillion to finance government in 2016, leaving only Senate action should it pass before the 2,200-page bundle goes to President Obama. The House and Senate plan to take final votes on the tax and spending bill Friday before leaving Washington for the holidays.

The tax bill also extends breaks for Puerto Rico rum makers, NASCAR, horse racing and television, film and theatre productions.

“This is a pro-growth bill”, said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee. 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. Notably, 77 Democrats joined the majority of Republicans to back it.

The 318-109 vote, part of a sweeping budget deal expected to clear Congress by week’s end, was supported by business and anti-poverty advocates as a down payment on a broader tax overhaul and a way to make permanent dozens of specialty tax breaks that have been renewed year to year.

Obama will sign the measure, which includes numerous spending increases he fought for all year and is largely cleansed of GOP attempts to block his moves on the environment, financial regulation, and consumer protection.

“I can tell you that I’ve had more meaningful conversations with the speaker and leadership in the last couple weeks than I think I’ve had in the past couple years”, said Rep. Mark Meadows, a member of the House Freedom Caucus who introduced a resolution to remove Boehner from office last July.

“The deal not only adds to the debt, it also squanders most of the hard-earned savings from either the “fiscal cliff” deal ($800 billion in revenue) or the sequester (more than $900 billion in spending cuts)”, said the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, in a statement. Ryan’s predecessor, John Boehner, rarely got that kind of backing from Republicans on a spending bill when ran the House.

“Next year, we’re going to do things differently”, he vowed, while arguing that the package is a “bipartisan compromise”. The measure adopted Thursday would make a number of them permanent, including those for business research and development, small business expenses, individual deductions for state and local sales taxes, and financing rules for multinational corporations.

A provision freezing the so-called Cadillac tax on high-end health insurance plans, which was also created to help pay for Obamacare, is included in the accompanying government spending bill.

Despite their concerns, both Mr. Reid and Mrs. Pelosi said they would support the spending bill.

“We’re faced with an existential threat from Islamic jihad and it becomes a bigger issue with the San Bernardino attacks and the Paris attacks”, says Rep. Steve King (R) of Iowa, an early tea party activist.

House Republicans said it would be a challenge to win over 20 or 30 of their 119-member majority. “We played the cards that we were dealt with as best as we possibly could”.