A $78 billion package of tax breaks for families and businesses passed the House on an overwhelming bipartisan vote. But key GOP senators demand big changes — or else.

A $78 billion package of tax breaks for families and businesses passed the House on an overwhelming bipartisan vote. But key GOP senators demand big changes — or else.

Senate Republicans are inching closer to burying a bipartisan bill to expand the child tax credit and provide breaks for businesses, issuing a series of demands that would most likely disrupt the coalition that enabled it to pass the House.

The $78 billion bill, negotiated by House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., and Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., passed the Republican-led House by a vote of 357-70 in January, a rare feat in a divided Congress that has struggled to function. But it has languished in the Senate, where key Republicans have said they’ll kill it unless it includes major revisions. Senate Democrats have 51 seats, and they need 60 votes to break a filibuster.

But with tax filing season close to finishing and election-year politics heating up, there’s no hint of a resolution in sight. Democratic leaders are eager to pass the legislation, which, according to one analysis, would benefit about 16 million children in low-income households. Some Republicans openly warn they may sink it.

  • @danc4498English
    32•7 months ago

    Crapo told NBC News on Tuesday that he still has problems with “a number” of provisions. He said he wants to eliminate a “look-back” policy that would let a taxpayer use a previous year’s income if it yielded a larger child tax credit, arguing that the current language weakens the work requirement. Saying the bill would “create entitlement spending that would generate significantly higher deficits,” he called for spending cuts to fund the child tax credit expansion.

    Republicans LOVE to talk about the deficit when a democrat is in power. Remember that tax bill Trump shoved through that had ZERO regard for the deficit? Pepperidge farms remembers.

    “Those are just the start,” Crapo said, adding that he likes the business tax breaks. But about the individual tax provisions…

    Yay business tax breaks… Boo individual! Think of all the bullshit schemes corporations can do to not pay taxes. But we gotta make sure to hammer down anything that might benefit the poor/middle class.

    • Optional
      4•7 months ago

      It’s still 1984 isn’t it.

    • @fluxionEnglish
      2•7 months ago

      Can’t be letting that 1% of Americans who got a raise just above some threshold score an additional child tax exemption. But for the top 1% who make millions off of bogus exemptions we must do everything possible to destroy and defund the IRS so they cannot be questioned or audited.