President Donald Trump celebrated passage of Senate GOP tax plan and expressed desire to sign a final bill before Christmas. The bill passed by a 51-49 vote shortly before 2 a.m. on Saturday.
“We are one step closer to delivering MASSIVE tax cuts for working families across America. Look forward to signing a final bill before Christmas!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
The vote is a big legislative win for the Republicans, The Hill reports.
Trump thanked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch for shepherding the tax bill through the upper chamber. Because the Republicans hold 52 seats in the Senate, McConnell could afford only two GOP defections and have Vice President Pence cast a tie-breaking vote on the tax plan. Senator Bob Corker was the only GOP senator who voted against the tax plan. He led a group of deficit hawks expressing concerns about the bill adding to the nation’s deficit. The senator said that he had fiscal concerns.
“I am not able to cast aside my fiscal concerns and vote for legislation that I believe, based on the information I currently have, could deepen the debt burden on future generations,” Corker said.
Republican senators, who stayed on the Senate floor until the vote closed, applauded when Pence said that the bill passed.
“This is a great day for the country. We have an opportunity now to make America more competitive, to keep jobs from being shipped off shore and to provide substantial relief for the middle class,” McConnel said after the vote.
The bill would repeal ObamaCare’s individual mandate and would lower tax rates for individuals through 2025 and permanently cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 percent, The Hill reports.
The next step for the GOP senators is to reconcile their legislation with the House version and put a final bill on Trump’s desk during December.
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