Free Republic

Senate Republicans were confident that they had the votes needed Friday to pass their tax plan as last-minute changes brought more GOP lawmakers on board. Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., earlier Friday said they would back the bill after securing further tax relief for pass-through businesses. Then, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., committed to supporting the plan, leaving Republican leaders confident that they had the support. On Friday morning, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, called holdout Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., the last two senators who need to get on board. The GOP can...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Sunday chided NBC's Chuck Todd for not asking her about tax reform during his interview of her that focused mostly on sexual misconduct claims made against members of Congress. Todd was set to close the interview, airing on "Meet the Press," without asking about the Republican tax reform plan, when Pelosi cut him off. "You mean we're not even going to talk about taxes?" Pelosi said. "You see, you have fallen into the place, where they [Republicans] are doing something that is going to increase the debt enormously, it's going to be a job...

In the interest of intellectual honesty and transparency, let's begin with a few important concessions to skeptics of the GOP tax reform bill: First, not every single American would be a winner under the plan.  A small percentage of US taxpayers would see a tax increase (disproportionately, these would be higher-income itemizers from high-tax states), and a number of deductions that help certain people with heavy medical expenses and student loan debt would be eliminated (proponents say much or all of the resulting blow would be mitigated by lower rates and a doubled standard deduction).  Second, among the "losers" would...

Sub-headline: Florida’s Republican tries to blow up the Senate tax reform. The GOP is pushing forward on tax reform, though a receiving line of Republican holdouts are slow-rolling progress. One who deserves special mention is Marco Rubio, who contributed nothing to ObamaCare repeal and now aspires to dilute the tax bill.On Wednesday Mr. Rubio and his political sidecar, Mike Lee of Utah, announced that they’ll file an amendment to the tax bill to change the $2,000 child tax credit. They want to make the credit refundable up to a person’s payroll tax liability, among other expensive tweaks. To pay for...

Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) are demanding that the tax reform bill include a trigger that automatically raises taxes in the future if tax receipts fall below projections. This is a bad idea. Raising taxes is never a good policy, but this provision also adds complexity and uncertainty to the tax code that will limit its impact on economic growth. Bob Corker and Jeff Flake want people to believe they're concerned about the deficit, but if that were true they would not have supported so many bills to increase the debt limit and increase spending. If there...

We'll get to the study mentioned in the headline shortly -- but first, it's already time for another tax reform fact check, necessitated by the Left's relentless machine of anti-reform propaganda and distortions.  On MSNBC, anchor Ali Velshi butchered the facts on the Congressional Budget Office's analysis of the projected impact of Senate Republicans' tax reform bill.  Here's the segment in which he disseminates, well, fake news, followed by an explanation of exactly how he misrepresented the CBO chart. Via the Free Beacon: MSNBC's Ali Velshi Messes Up CBO Chart on Tax Reform (Video) "More bad news from the Congressional...

One of the best things that President George W. Bush accomplished in his eight years in office was a reduction in the capital gains tax. The capital gains tax had become a drag on investment, which discouraged people from putting their idle money to good use. Bush’s reduction in capital gains wasn’t just a cut, but effectively a genuine improvement in how we tax. The changes became incentives, which mobilized dormant or idle capital. More money was made available in the economy in the form of long-term investments. In short, it brought productive and willing capital for growth. Even with...

The messiness of the long-proverbial "mess in Washington" stands out this post-holiday week like a picked and evacuated turkey carcass. To itemize: 1) The tax debate, so-called. 2) The furor over who's to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -- assuming you've heard of this enterprise, which is disliked by many on account of its claimed self-sufficiency and virtual non-accountability to the rest of the government. If we didn't know before that the federal government is too big for Republicans or Democrats, either one, to bring under control, my, oh, my, we should know it now. Let me rehearse the...

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson has caused a bit of a hullabaloo by complaining that small businesses don't get the benefits that corporations do in the GOP tax plan. Johnson has credibility here because he is one of those rare breeds in Congress who actually knows something about running a business, having done so for nearly 30 years. Sen. Johnson's beef with the House plan is that the effective tax rate on a successful small business would be almost 36 percent (as opposed to 39.6 percent today), compared with the new 20 percent rate for a corporation, such as General Electric...

The list of Republicans who voted NO on the Tax bill makes a very clear statement about the future of their party in the Blue States. They are a dozen or so poor souls clinging to the old politics way of doing things. Knowing he had the votes to pass a tax bill that would destroy the states these people come from, Speaker Paul Ryan gave them permission to vote NO. In old pre-Trump politics this would shield them from effective attacks and save their jobs; but those days are over. The bill contains the greatest attack by a majority...

Key Findings The Senate’s version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would reform both individual income and corporate income taxes and would move the United States to a territorial system of business taxation. According to the Tax Foundation’s Taxes and Growth Model, the plan would significantly lower marginal tax rates and the cost of capital, which would lead to a 3.7 percent increase in GDP over the long term, 2.9 percent higher wages, and an additional 925,000 full-time equivalent jobs. The Senate’s version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is a pro-growth tax plan, which, when fully implemented,...

It's been 19 days since Rand Paul was attacked by a neighbor while mowing his lawn. And on Wednesday, the story got even stranger as the wife of the Kentucky Republican Senator wrote a piece for CNN detailing the extent of the injuries he suffered in the attack. "There have been several nights where I had my hand on my phone ready to call 911 when his breathing became so labored it was terrifying," writes Kelley Paul of her husband. What's even more striking is how Kelley Paul describes the attack -- and the motive behind it... In the immediate...

A group of 44 conservative leaders have sent a letter to all members of Congress that might be called a conservative wake-up call. The group represents, through their various organizations, a broad array of conservative concerns. But they boil it all down to three areas that all agree need immediate legislative action. Tax reform, which currently is in the pipeline, bolstering our defense budget, and getting the federal budget in order through fiscal restraint. The point these conservatives wish to drive home to Congress is that Donald Trump's election in 2016 was not just an anti-establishment vote. It was a...

New Jersey is potentially holding off hiking its income tax due to the possibility of the state and local tax deduction being eliminated in the GOP tax plan, according to the president of the New Jersey Senate. “I’m actually very concerned for the people of this state if this Trump tax happens, and I think we’re going to have to re-evaluate everything once that happens,” Senate President Steve Sweeney said Nov. 15 in reference to hiking the state’s tax rate on the highest earners from 8.97 percent to 10.75 percent. The Senate tax plan, which was voted out of the...

The repeal of the itemized deduction for medical expenses is one of the proposed changes to the current income tax laws. It is among the smallest of the deductions scheduled for repeal, but the consequences will be significant for those affected. In lives fraught with uncertainty because of personal health challenges and escalating medical costs, removing this simple and cost-effective form of economic relief will cause massive immediate and undue additional stress and pain for individuals and families who rely on this deduction to help them care for themselves or their loved ones. This does not concern the notorious 1%...

Liberal activist Sally Kohn -- who is delightful in person, but wrong about almost everything -- tweeted an attack on the GOP tax plan yesterday, urging her followers to "call bulls*t" on Republican defenses of their proposal.  Basically everything in her tweet was wrong.  Here's her initial effort, followed by my rebuttal: Here’s some more tax facts for ya. When Trump and Republicans insist that we *have to* cut corporate taxes because ours are the highest in the world, CALL BULLSH*T. But I guess they’re not low enough for the billionaires who want to soak the working class and poor...

With Video ----------------------- Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) admonished Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) for accusing Republicans of writing the tax bill "for the rich" at a late night hearing on amendments and markups. "With all due respect, I get sick and tired of the rich getting richer," Brown said in a diatribe against Republicans. "I come from the poor people, and I have been here working my whole stinkin' career for people who don't have a chance, and I really resent anybody that says I'm doing it for the rich. Give me a break. I...

Elected Republican senators have been recent targets of shooting and beatings and one would think elected Democrats would tone their political taunts down since. Sadly, this is not the case as one Democrat after another appeared at an anti "tax reform" rally on Capitol Hill November 15th and the word of the day appeared to be "kill". California Democrat congressman Alan Lowenthal took direct aim....

Elimination of the State and Local Tax deduction will harm the people of high-tax California, high-tax New York, high-tax New Jersey, and high-tax Illinois Many California Republicans are excited about the federal GOP tax reform bill and anxious for tax relief, but others are warning about the negative impacts on individual taxpayers in high tax states like California and New York. I spoke with California’s Congressman Tom McClintock this week to drill down into the corporate and personal aspects of the tax reform bill, to understand the nitty-gritty.

The Senate has finally produced its proposed version of tax reform nearly halfway through this session of Congress, and it’s clear that Republicans in Congress don’t talk much with each other. Not only did Finance chair Orrin Hatch include a repeal of the ObamaCare individual mandate, which the House eschewed, they took the opposite approach to deficit control for reconciliation. The House made the corporate tax rates temporary and the individual tax cuts permanent. Hatch flipped that around, which is bound to raise some eyebrows: Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) released modifications to the Senate tax bill...