House GOP revises tax bill, makes it less generous

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

House Republicans on Friday quietly made changes to their far-reaching tax overhaul: Now its tax cuts would be less generous for many Americans.

A day after the GOP unveiled its plan promising middle-class relief, the House’s top tax-writer, Rep. Kevin Brady, released a revised version of the bill that would impose a new, lower-inflation “chained CPI” adjustment for tax brackets immediately instead of in 2023. That means more income would be taxed at higher rates over time – and less generous tax cuts for individuals and families.

The change, posted on the website of the Ways and Means Committee, reduces the value of the tax cuts for ordinary Americans by $89 billion over 10 years compared with the legislation released with fanfare Thursday.

As wages rise, middle-class taxpayers would have more of their income taxed at the 25 percent rate instead of at 12 percent, for instance.

“The bill’s like a dead fish: The more it hangs out in the sunlight, the stinkier it gets,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer pronounced after word of Brady’s change. “The more people learn about this bill, the less they’re going to like it.”

The change to the plan frees up money for Brady, R-Texas, the committee’s chairman, to use to address concerns by lawmakers when changing the bill further next week. The Ways and Means panel begins work Monday, a final bill-writing process expected to take four days.

Brady on Friday called it “a challenge of a lifetime legislatively.”

While President Donald Trump and House Republican leaders stand united behind the plan, rank-and-file GOP lawmakers are divided and complaining about its potential blow to homeowners and the loss of a prized deduction that especially hits high-tax states.

Democrats kept up their rhetorical battle against the plan, which was crafted by White House officials and Republican leaders in Congress in closed-door sessions over much of this year.

“Get real. Don’t tell the middle class this is for them,” House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi admonished Republicans as she spoke in a press conference. “You’ve set a banquet for the wealthy and corporate America and thrown a few crumbs” to the middle class. “It’s really making suckers of the American people.”