Republicans Are Trying to Make Tax Cuts Permanent

Congressional Republicans just introduced a bill to make the 2017 Trump tax cuts permanent.

Wall Street Journal reports:

The extension of lower, individual tax rates is contained in legislation that is part of a three-bill package. Besides permanently lowering individual rates, the measure would also lock in the new standard deduction, which increased to $12,000 per individual and $24,000 for a married couple, and the special deduction for owners of pass-through businesses, in which business revenues flow through to the tax returns of individual owners. The package also contains measures dealing with retirement savings and aimed at helping startups.

“This legislation is our commitment to the American worker to ensure our tax code remains the most competitive in the world,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R., Texas), the principal architect of the 2017 tax cuts.

The merits and disadvantages of the 2017 tax law are being hotly debated in many races for House and Senate, with Republicans seeing the tax cuts as providing a growth spurt that has boosted employment and wages. Democrats argue the tax cuts disproportionately benefit the wealthy while also adding to the federal budget deficit.

Democrats, however, continue to call tax cuts a ‘scam.’

With version 2.0 of the #GOPTaxScam for the rich, Republicans want to add even more to the deficit, and even more to the bank accounts of the wealthiest 1 percent. https://t.co/dXQERTFCY2

— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) September 10, 2018