(WASHINGTON) – The U.S. Senate on Thursday delayed voting on a Republican tax overhaul as the bill was tripped up by problems with an amendment sought by fiscal hawks to address a large expansion of the federal budget deficit projected to result from the measure.
The Senate was debating the legislation late into Thursday, but put off any votes until Friday. It was not clear if a decisive vote on the bill would happen then.
The delay underscored nagging concerns among Republican fiscal conservatives with the deficit impact of a bill seen by the party as crucial to its political prospects in the Nov. 2018 elections, when it will fight to keep control of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump and Republicans now in control of Congress have yet to pass major legislation, a fact they hope to change with their proposed tax– code overhaul, which would be the biggest since the 1980s.
Democrats, expected to unanimously oppose the tax bill, have dismissed it as a giveaway to the wealthy and corporations.
Republican Senator Bob Corker and others tried to add a provision to the bill to trigger automatic future tax increases if the tax cuts in the bill did not boost the economy and generate revenues sufficient to offset the deficit expansion.
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But the Senate parliamentarian barred Corker’s “trigger” proposal on procedural grounds.
The trigger amendment was needed to win Corker’s vote and those of others worried about the deficit – worries that intensified when congressional analysts said the bill would not boost the economy enough to offset the estimated deficit expansion, as the Trump administration had said it would.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch told reporters in the Capitol that it had not been easy to accommodate Corker, Senator Jeff Flake and other fiscal hawks. “It’s been pretty hard to make them happy so far. We’re going to keep working on it … and we’re going to do it,” Hatch said.
In an approach that could pose political problems for other lawmakers, Republicans were considering building future tax increases into their bill, effectively reversing some of the bill‘s tax cuts, to lock in the votes they need.
“It’s not a threshold anymore. It’s just a tax increase,” Republican Senator David Perdue said, describing possible alternatives. “The only thing that’s come off the table is the trigger concept.”
Corporate Tax May Change
For instance, Senate Republicans were considering making a proposed corporate income tax rate cut temporary, instead of permanent, so the rate would rise back to an unknown level after six or seven years, said one Republican senator and an aide.