More U.S. senators waver as Republican tax vote nears
President Donald Trump's drive to win passage of a sweeping Republican tax bill in the U.S. Congress hit potential obstacles on Thursday as two more Republican senators insisted on changes, joining a list of lawmakers whose support is uncertain.
Florida's Marco Rubio, a former presidential contender, told reporters on Capitol Hill that if the bill's proposed refundability to taxpayers of the child tax credit is not expanded, "I'm a no ... It has to be higher than $1,100."
Rubio and Mike Lee of Utah are in talks with other senators about expanding child tax credit refundability, said Conn Carroll, a Lee spokesman. Lee is now "undecided on the tax bill as currently written," Carroll said in a telephone interview.
The child tax credit now in the U.S. tax code is meant to lower the tax bills of working families with children.
As the fast-moving Republican tax package has evolved, it has tilted increasingly toward benefiting businesses and wealthy taxpayers, a trend that aides were saying privately is a growing concern for some lawmakers.
Provisions for offsetting the revenue costs of last-minute changes also were becoming worrisomely unclear, they said.
After resisting demands for weeks to cut the top income tax rate for the richest taxpayers, the bill's authors did agree in recent days to lower it to 37 per cent from 39.6 per cent.
"My concern is that if you found the money to lower the top rate ... you can't find a little bit to at least somewhat increase the refundable portion" of the child credit? Rubio said.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the White House will continue to work with Rubio on the child tax credit.
The headline feature of the bill is a deep cut to 21 per cent from 35 per cent of the corporate income tax rate, a step that corporate tax lobbyists have been pursuing for many years.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/new...as-republican-tax-vote-nears/article37332596/
President Donald Trump's drive to win passage of a sweeping Republican tax bill in the U.S. Congress hit potential obstacles on Thursday as two more Republican senators insisted on changes, joining a list of lawmakers whose support is uncertain.
Florida's Marco Rubio, a former presidential contender, told reporters on Capitol Hill that if the bill's proposed refundability to taxpayers of the child tax credit is not expanded, "I'm a no ... It has to be higher than $1,100."
Rubio and Mike Lee of Utah are in talks with other senators about expanding child tax credit refundability, said Conn Carroll, a Lee spokesman. Lee is now "undecided on the tax bill as currently written," Carroll said in a telephone interview.
The child tax credit now in the U.S. tax code is meant to lower the tax bills of working families with children.
As the fast-moving Republican tax package has evolved, it has tilted increasingly toward benefiting businesses and wealthy taxpayers, a trend that aides were saying privately is a growing concern for some lawmakers.
Provisions for offsetting the revenue costs of last-minute changes also were becoming worrisomely unclear, they said.
After resisting demands for weeks to cut the top income tax rate for the richest taxpayers, the bill's authors did agree in recent days to lower it to 37 per cent from 39.6 per cent.
"My concern is that if you found the money to lower the top rate ... you can't find a little bit to at least somewhat increase the refundable portion" of the child credit? Rubio said.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the White House will continue to work with Rubio on the child tax credit.
The headline feature of the bill is a deep cut to 21 per cent from 35 per cent of the corporate income tax rate, a step that corporate tax lobbyists have been pursuing for many years.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/new...as-republican-tax-vote-nears/article37332596/
