US economy to ‘rock’ as GOP races to tax-cut finish: Trump

Bloomberg

President Donald Trump predicted the US economy is “going to start to rock” when the Republican rewrite of the US tax code is complete after a six-week sprint.
GOP lawmakers posted their sweeping, 503-page bill—with permanent tax cut for US corporations and temporary benefits for individuals—after gaining key votes from two Republican senators who’d threatened to oppose it. Now, with votes planned in the House and Senate by the middle of next week, Trump is closing in on his first major legislative victory.
The bill—hammered out behind closed doors by Republican leaders—would slash the corporate tax rate to 21 percent, the lowest that rate has been since 1939. It would provide across-the-board tax cuts for most individuals, but then wipe them off the books by 2026. Whether to extend them would be up to a
future Congress.
Trump’s White House applauded the developments, which Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called a major step towards achieving the president’s promises of faster economic growth and “much needed financial relief to all Americans.”
“It’ll be fantastic for the middle-income people and for jobs, most of all,” Trump said at the White House before boarding Marine One for Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland. He predicted US economic growth “could go to 4, 5 or even 6 percent, ultimately.”
“We are really going to start to rock,” Trump told reporters. House leaders plan to hold their vote on Tuesday. Timing for the Senate vote was less clear, though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the chamber would “get this bill done” next week.
Trump and congressional Republicans have repeatedly pitched the tax measure as a boon for the middle class, despite independent analyses of earlier versions that said most of the benefit would go to higher earners. The final bill would provide a larger tax cut for the highest earners by shaving the top individual tax rate to 37 percent from 39.6 percent, a lower level than was proposed in either the House or Senate versions.
“This April 15 filing season— that is the last time you will file under this monstrous, broken tax code,” House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady said. Brady kicked off a remarkably rapid law-making effort, when he released an initial bill. The final version reflects significant changes. Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who had announced his opposition to an earlier version of the legislation, switched to “yes” after tax writers changed the bill to broaden the child tax credit’s benefits for working families.

‘Major Wins’
Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who hasn’t committed to supporting the final legislation, issued a news release saying she’d secured “major wins” in it, including provisions that would temporarily broaden an individual deduction for medical expenses and broaden the types of state and local taxes that can be deducted below a $10,000 cap.
Collins also seeks approval of separate legislation that would shore up individual health insurance markets—where experts say premiums could rise because the tax bill would repeal the Obamacare individual mandate.
The Congressional Budget Office has previously estimated that the change would lead to as many as 13 million fewer Americans having health coverage over a decade. But the most surprising announcement came from Bob Corker of Tennessee when he said that he’d reversed course and would vote “yes.”