'Math not adding up' as GOP lawmakers fight over Trump’s 'sprawling megabill'

09 May

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 16, 2024 (Maxim Elramsisy/Shutterstock.com)

The "big, beautiful bill" that President Donald Trump is hoping for keeps getting delayed as GOP lawmakers fight over the specifics.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) was hoping to get a megabill combining Trump's legislative priorities onto his desk for signature by Memorial Day, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saw July 4 as more realistic. And The Hill's Alexander Bolton reported that according to Republicans on Capitol Hill, even the Fourth of July may not be doable.

One of the key megabill proposals is an extension of 2017's corporate tax cuts. But according to Politico sources, those cuts may be in danger.

In an article published on May 9, Politico reporters Ben Leonard, Benjamin Guggenheim and Meredith Lee Hill explain, "GOP leaders on Capitol Hill signaled Thursday, (May 8) they are scaling back their tax-cutting ambitions after running into difficulty making deep spending cuts and facing stern warnings from Republican deficit hawks who are threatening to vote against Trump's sprawling megabill. On the chopping block could be a litany of Trump demands, including a permanent extension of the tax cuts passed during his first term, as well as second-term campaign promises to provide tax relief to seniors while also exempting taxes on tips and overtime earnings."

The Politico journalists add, "Those provisions could end up getting enacted only temporarily, according to four Republican lawmakers, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity.

GOP leaders, according to Leonard, Guggenheim and Hill, "are still exploring a request from Trump to increase income taxes" on high-income Americans "from 37 percent to 39.6 percent…. in order to make room for more tax cuts elsewhere."

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Missouri), they report, "may not be able to deliver on all of Trump’s requests" — which include eliminating taxes on tips, Social Security and overtime pay — if he adheres to the "new 4 trillion tax plan" Johnson is proposing.

"Smith had already indicated it would be difficult to make the 2017 bill permanent under the House's fiscal framework, which envisioned $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and $2 trillion in spending cuts," Leonard, Guggenheim and Hill note. "Fiscal hawks are counting on economic growth and other 'dynamic' effects to make up the difference. Now that Johnson is planning on $500 billion less in tax cuts, tax writers on the (Way and Means) Committee will have to make some very difficult choices on what to prioritize…. Even with revenue-generating proposals — such as increasing the tax on university endowments and repealing Biden-era clean energy credits — the math is not adding up for Republicans who want to fit it all in."

Read the full Politico article at this link.

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