Congressional Republicans have developed a plan to get a tax bill on President Trump's desk by New Year's Day, using extraordinary measures typically reserved for financial crises.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the plan is to conceal the details of the bill until after Halloween, then by Thanksgiving have the legislation pass in the House and Senate, thereby reaching the Oval Office by New Year’s Day.
"That’s close to financial-crisis speed, pushing Congress into a kind of emergency lawmaking mode it typically uses only when inaction means cataclysm," Rubin notes.
The House Ways and Means Chairman, Rep. Kevin Brady, and the Senate Finance Chairman, Sen. Orrin Hatch, have been working with the Trump administration to come up with proposals that would be palatable to the public. While the Wall Street Journal reports that some tax breaks, such as the state and local tax deduction, might be rescinded, CNN reported Monday that the latest draft of the tax plan maintains the tax write-off that allows individuals to deduct their state and local property taxes as well as income or sales taxes from their federal returns.
Republicans don't have much room for error in the coming weeks, as the GOP has already lost the health care fight in Congress this year. Republicans cannot lose more than two votes from their side of the aisle, otherwise Democrats will likely defeat another significant piece of legislation for the Trump White House.
The current Republican plan will add more than $5 trillion to deficits over a decade, thanks to a 20 percent corporate tax rate that will cost the country trillions. Because corporations will be paying less, Republicans have had to find and remove popular tax breaks for citizens.
Fielding questions from constituents in Wisconsin, House Speaker Paul Ryan said that special interests were trying to create "confusion and chaos" to derail the Republican tax overhaul plan, the Associated Press reported.
The way The Wall Street Journal's editorial board has been reacting this past week — calling for Mueller's firing and encouraging investigations in Hillary Clinton — it's apparent that right-wing media realizes that tax cuts could be in serious jeopardy.
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