Republicans On Verge Of Passing Senate Tax Bill

The sudden certainty marks a dramatic shift after it appeared that the fate of the bill was in doubt just hours earlier because of concerns that steep tax cuts could add trillions to the deficit over time.

After the meeting, a number of high-profile holdouts on the legislation said they expected a new version of the bill would satisfy a wide range of GOP demands.

Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, once one of the firm holdouts because of concerns over the deficit, tweeted he would support the bill after getting assurances from the White House and Senate GOP leaders that they would work on legislation related to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which President Trump ordered to be rescinded earlier this year.

Maine Republican Susan Collins also announced that she would vote yes after extracting several concessions. The new bill will include her request to allow taxpayers to write off up to $10,000 in property taxes paid to state and local governments. Collins also says McConnell pledged to support legislation to fund subsidies to insurance companies to help defray costs for low-income consumers. The Trump administration stopped paying those cost-sharing reductions this year.

Senate Republicans plan to leave the cut in the corporate tax rate as it stands at 20 percent. They will drop the pass-through rate, used by businesses that pay taxes on the individual side of the tax code, to 23 percent as opposed to the 25 percent originally planned, according to Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. A new version of the bill will also include more generous rules for businesses that decide to begin filing as corporations as a result of tax overhaul.

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The bill is projected to add $1.4 trillion to the deficit over 10 years. The Joint Committee on Taxation reported on Thursday that the economic stimulus from the bill would only make up $400 billion of that.