WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that House and Senate Republican leaders have reached an agreement in principle on the sweeping legislation overhauling the U.S. tax code.
“We’re very, very close to a historical legislative victory,” Trump said at a lunch with the House and Senate lawmakers negotiating the differences in their chambers’ versions to create a final $1.5 trillion tax-cut bill.
Some details still need to be worked out for the legislation that would cut corporate and business taxes while lowering rates for individuals, and congressional scorekeepers must give their final assessment of the bill, Trump and lawmakers said.
The Republican tax package that is emerging would lower the top tax rate for wealthy Americans to 37 percent from 39.6 percent and slash the tax rate for corporations to 21 percent from the current 35 percent, slightly higher than Trump’s goal for a 20 percent rate.
“If it got down to 21, I would sign,” Trump said about the corporate tax rate, adding that he and corporations would be very happy what that size of a tax cut. But he added the final figure has not yet been set.
The measure would give Trump his first major legislative victory in Congress and would fulfill the longstanding goal of House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) to rewrite the tax code for the first time in three decades.
House and Senate Republicans still must resolve the differences on several issues, including the number of tax brackets for individuals, whether to repeal the alternative minimum tax and whether to restore more of state and local tax deductions.
So far, only a deduction of up to $10,000 for property taxes is in the bill.
The two sides also reportedly have agreed to cut the difference between the House and Senate bills on deductions for new mortgages, setting the top amount at $750,000, down from the current $1 million but up from the proposed $500,000.
Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), the House Ways and Means chairman and key member of the conference, said on Tuesday he hopes the final version will be finished Friday, and will be made available to the public for review.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) to put off a vote on the tax cut bill until newly elected Alabama Democrat Sen. Doug Jones is seated.
“Today we are calling on Mitch McConnell to hit pause on his tax bill and not hold a final vote until Doug Jones is sworn into to the Senate,” Schumer said at a news conference.
“It would be wrong for Senate Republicans to jam through this tax bill without giving the newly elected senator from Alabama the opportunity to cast his vote,” Schumer said.
But Trump argued for a vote next week.
“I think it’s very important for the country to get a vote next week,” Trump said, adding that it was not because of the Jones’ victory.
On Wednesday afternoon, Trump is scheduled to deliver a speech on tax legislation and the House will hold an open meeting of the House-Senate conference appointed to resolve differences between the House and Senate tax bills.
Schumer called the tax bill a boon to the wealthy and corporations at the expense of the middle class, asking how the proposal to lower the top rate to 37 percent helps the middle class.
“This bill is a suburban tax, plain and simple,” Schumer said. “It will clobber suburbs with getting rid of the state and local tax deduction. It will be aimed at the Republican constituency there, people who make between say $75,000 and $300,000. They are the ones who get hurt by this bill. Yet Republicans are hurdling ahead.”
