Posted on 11/30/2017 10:33:53 AM PST by GIdget2004
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a key holdout on the Republican tax bill, says a proposal to establish a trigger pulling back tax cuts in case economic projects fall short hasnt been resolved.
The lack of an agreement puts the votes of Corker and at least two other deficit hawks, Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.), in jeopardy.
Asked if there was agreement on the trigger, Corker replied, no.
An offer has been made and were dealing with it and other issues, Corker said.
The proposal under discussion would rollback tax relief and raise about $350 billion over 10 years in case the GOPs $1.5 trillion tax bill fails to spur as much economic growth as projected.
Corker declined to say how specifically the proposed trigger would raise revenues.
Its a basket of issues, he said.
Senate Republican negotiators are looking at a trigger that would roll back tax relief instead of cutting spending, in part because of procedural rules that limit what can be in the bill.
"It would have to be tax to be germane," said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who is working with Corker to implement the safeguard.
An array of conservative groups, such as Club for Growth and Americans for Tax Reform, have come out strongly against the idea of a trigger.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
The trigger is a bad idea. It would kick in if and only if it would also be a devastating blow to the economy. But the bill is not a “mystery” because it’s unknown whether the trigger will be included. Quite the contrary: the Senate is allowing consideration of amendments! GASP! And it’s unknown YET whether the final Senate bill will include the trigger BECAUSE THE TRIGGER HASN’T COME UP FOR A VOTE.
After the Senate votes on the trigger, it will then know whether the trigger is included in the final bill.
We all hate Corker and Flake by now, but just to consider how hateable they are, could anyone ever have guessed that Corker or Flake would prefer 35% taxes to 20% taxes in the event that economy grows slower than expected?
Spend trigger should be more like it. When I realize my family will take in less money, I have to cut back on what I spend. Congress is soooooo screwed up! Please, let the revolution begin!
Good post on QE. At this point taxation is pointless—really just a method of controlling the populace and training them to obey.
QE destroys all standard economic theory—except that it is guaranteed long term ruin for any civilization that adopts it in large measure.
I stay away from predictions. QE was necessary. Capitalism failed. Bernanke kept the trains running on time.
But it’s delusion, and willful delusion by everyone who ever earned any money or has any money.
We sneer at how the Soviets and communism failed. They had Gosbank, which was not empowered to do monetary policy. They just created money to accommodate their 5 year plan.
Well, if they had done QE, they would not have “failed”. Well, they would have, but the trains would have still run on time. Just like with the Fed. No one can possibly accept that capitalism is a failure. But it is. It failed. The Fed gave it money.
Actually the commissions to mortgage brokers and loan officers made that happen more than govt pressure.
But it did happen. And capitalism did fail. Bernanke didn’t save it. He just created pretense all were delighted to sign onto.
Senator Flake was just fishing for, digging for, hoping for something... ANYTHING... that would allow him to keep the high moral road and stick a big knife on Trump’s back.
He found it. He is SOOOOooo concerned about increasing the deficit! /s
Oh, now in good conscience he can cast a ‘NO’ vote. I hope others see through this and ostracize him from any future public life.
Keeping things in perspective, 1.5 Trillion over 10 years is nothing compared to Obama’s 10 Trillion over 8 years.
Also by definition 1.5 trillion does not ‘substantially increase the debt’
By definition.
Because to go forwards with a 50 vote reconciliation, the Byrd amendment says that it can only happen if it does not ‘substantially increase the debt’. The number everybody in the senate agreed that meets that criteria was 1.5 Trillion.
How about a debt trigger to CUT SPENDING?
If you like your taxes, you can keep your taxes...
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