–House Set To Pass GOP Plan That Outlines Framework For Tax Overhaul
–House Majority Leader Cantor: Bill ‘Paves The Way’ For Overhaul
–Dem Rep. Levin: GOP Using ‘Propaganda’ In Tax Debate
By John Shaw
WASHINGTON (MNI) – The House is moving to pass later Thursday a
Republican bill that would create an expedited procedure for taking up
and passing comprehensive tax reform next year.
The Republican bill is likely to pass on a nearly party line vote
Thursday.
It follows passage Wednesday of Republican legislation to renew all
Bush era tax cuts for another year. The House approved the GOP tax cut
bill on a 255 to 171 vote.
A similar vote is likely for the tax reform bill.
The pending bill requires the chairman of the House Ways and Means
Committee to introduce a tax overhaul bill by April 30 of next year.
The legislation says the tax overhaul bill should consolidate the
current individual tax brackets into no more than two brackets of 10%
and no greater than 25%. The bill should lower the corporate tax rate to
25%, repeal the alternative minimum tax, and ensure that revenue be no
more than 19% of gross national product. It also says the bill should
shift the U.S. to territorial system from the current worldwide system.
“We need tax reform,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said during
the floor debate, adding the House GOP bill “paves the way for
comprehensive tax reform” next year.
Cantor said the vote to provide for expedited tax reform “should be
the easiest vote we take all year.”
But Democrats charged the bill is drafted in a deceptive way and
would allow Republicans to put almost anything in the bill which would
be considered on a fast-track basis.
Rep. Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means
Committee, dismissed Cantor’s praise for the package as little more than
“propaganda.”
** MNI Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **
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