President Donald Trump touted the passage of the GOP tax bill in the Senate. He tweeted that it is the largest such bill in history and celebrated the repeal of the ObamaCare individual mandate, The Hill reported.
“The United States Senate just passed the biggest in history Tax Cut and Reform Bill. Terrible Individual Mandate (ObamaCare)Repealed. Goes to the House tomorrow morning for final vote. If approved, there will be a News Conference at The White House at approximately 1:00 P.M.” Trump wrote on Twitter.
The Senate passed the bill by a 51-48 vote, shortly after the bill got the approval of the House of Representatives, which will have to vote again on the bill because the Senate parliamentarian found two provisions in it that violate the budget rules that the Republicans were using to prevent a filibuster led by the Democrats.
Protesters briefly interrupted the Senate vote, but they were quickly removed from the Senate chamber. The protesters chanted “kill the bill don’t kill us” and “you’re fired.”
Mitch McConnell, Senate majority leader said that the legislation is a “once in a generation opportunity.”
“[It will] deliver historic tax relief to American families. It will help put our country on a trajectory toward more innovation and better-paying jobs. It will repeal an unfair tax at the center of ObamaCare and will help America achieve greater energy security,” he emphasized.
The approval of the bill that would reset the tax code, open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling and repeal the individual mandate to buy insurance under ObamaCare, would be a big Christmas present for Trump after an often frustrating year for his party which had problems in repealing ObamaCare. The bill would temporarily lower rates for individuals and families and reduce tax breaks important to states and cities with higher taxes by placing a $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction.
Because most of the bill’s changes for individuals expire in 2025, Republican lawmakers have predicted that lawmakers in the future will extend them. That will probably spike the cost of the bill. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’s official scorekeeper, the tax plan will add nearly $1.5 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, but the Republicans say that the costs of the bill are overstated and that the bill will boost an already healthy economy, leading to new investments by U.S. companies.
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