rationalskepticism.org

After Health Care Victory, Senate Democrats Seek Compromise on Tax Plan

Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, and Senator Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, organized the drafting of the letter, which lays out their priorities. Three Democratic senators who are up for re-election next year — Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota — did not sign the letter. They could be ripe targets for Republicans looking for Democrats to get on board with their tax plan.

Despite the outreach, bipartisanship will not come easy.

On taxes, Democrats tend to favor raising taxes on the rich to pay for cuts that would reduce tax rates for middle-income families. The parties are in closer agreement on changes to the corporate tax system, but Democrats argue that the cuts Republicans are proposing are far too deep.

In the conditions laid out in their letter, the Democrats insisted that changes to tax laws not increase the tax burden on the middle class and that the wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers not see their tax bills shrink.

They also insisted that Republicans return to “regular order” and not try to push a tax bill through Congress using budget reconciliation rules that require only a simple majority in the Senate.

Finally, they want a rewrite of the tax code that does not add to the deficit and is not paid for with cuts to programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

For much of this year, Democrats have criticized the proposed tax policies of Republicans as giveaways to the rich. It was clear on Tuesday that Republicans are not eager to let Democrats meddle with their plans for a tax overhaul, even if they would welcome a few of their votes.

“We will need to use reconciliation because we have been informed by the majority of the Democrats in a letter I just received today that most of the principles that would get the country growing again, they’re not interested in addressing,” Mr. McConnell said, leaving the option for Democrats to support a Republican-led tax plan. “So I don’t think this is going to be 1986 when you had a bipartisan effort to scrub the code.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/01/us/p ... -plan.html