Republicans need to win midterms to make tax cuts permanent, Rep. Kevin Brady says
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said on Sunday that lasting changes to the tax code will ultimately be decided by the results of the November midterm elections.
“Permanence really depends on this election,” Brady, R-Texas, told Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.” “If Republicans retain control of the House and the Senate next year we will do reconciliation and make these tax cuts permanent.”
The House passed the latest tax reform package, known as “Tax Cuts 2.0,” in late September with some support from Democrats. The package consists of three separate bills: The Family Savings Act, The American Innovation Act and the Protecting Family and Small Business Tax Cuts Act of 2018. The third bill would extend some parts of last year’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), including individual income and estate tax provisions, which are slated to expire at the end of 2025.
If the bill is passed, taxes would decline on average across all income groups, according to the Tax Policy Center (TPC), a nonpartisan think tank. About two-thirds of taxpayers would receive a tax cut, while approximately 9 percent would see a tax increase, the organization wrote. If the bill becomes law, taxes would be reduced by about $1,600 on average, TPC said.
“The bill to extend the TCJA’s individual and estate tax cuts has the same structural flaws as the original,” Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at TPC, wrote in September, prior to the House passing the bill. “It is an enormous budget-buster that primarily benefits high-income households. This bill has no chance of receiving the 60 votes it needs to pass the Senate.”
But Brady reiterated that President Trump is still focused on the economy and providing tax cuts to the middle class.
“[The president is] really focused on the middle class,” he said. “He just believes they’re the ones that get squeezed the most. He’s asked us and we’ve worked with him on developing another 10 percent middle-class tax cuts for workers and families and so we’ll be ready to move with that as well.”