Math is Hard.
While Republicans are in their conference meeting giving Ways and Means Committee Chair Kevin Brady a standing ovation, we wanted to be sure you saw this New York Times article detailing how House Republicans will release their bill today with placeholder text instead of confronting the fact that their math still isn’t adding up. So just four days from the scheduled mark up, we still won’t know what’s actually in the bill. Highlights from the New York Times:
“There is a math problem at the heart of the Republican Party’s protracted introduction of a sprawling tax bill, and it grows, in part, from President Trump’s two nonnegotiable demands.”
“The bill, which had been scheduled for release on Wednesday, is now expected to be unveiled Thursday, despite continuing struggles to reach agreement on how to pay for everything lawmakers want to include. Some industry groups familiar with the negotiations said the remaining shortfall was in the hundreds of billions of dollars.”
“On Wednesday, lawmakers were discussing a potential bandage solution to buy themselves time to figure out the hard math. That solution would call for phasing in some rate cuts over a period of years, and making some cuts temporary, which would lessen the short- and long-term revenue hit. Industry groups familiar with the discussions said such a move was not meant to be the actual legislative solution, but rather a place holder that would allow Republican leaders to work out the details of a new set of revenue-raisers that would be inserted in the bill before the full House votes on it.”
“The bill, which had been scheduled for release on Wednesday, is now expected to be unveiled Thursday, despite continuing struggles to reach agreement on how to pay for everything lawmakers want to include. Some industry groups familiar with the negotiations said the remaining shortfall was in the hundreds of billions of dollars.”
“On Wednesday, lawmakers were discussing a potential bandage solution to buy themselves time to figure out the hard math. That solution would call for phasing in some rate cuts over a period of years, and making some cuts temporary, which would lessen the short- and long-term revenue hit. Industry groups familiar with the discussions said such a move was not meant to be the actual legislative solution, but rather a place holder that would allow Republican leaders to work out the details of a new set of revenue-raisers that would be inserted in the bill before the full House votes on it.”