As the upper chamber prepares to take on tax reform in September, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that the process won’t be easy, but it’s necessary for the party to fulfill promises.
Senate Republicans are turning to reforming the tax code after failing to gain the 50 votes needed to move forward on repealing and replacing Obamacare. McConnell stressed the urgency for members to act, adding that members of both parties see a need for change to keep the country competitive in the world marketplace.
“This won’t be an easy process, but the people we represent are depending on us for help,” the Kentucky Republican said on the Senate floor.
McConnell said Tuesday that Republicans plan to use the reconciliation process — allowing lawmakers to pass the measure using just a simple majority in the upper chamber — after receiving a letter from Democrats laying out their conditions for working on a bipartisan basis. While the GOP is gearing up to bypass Democrats, McConnell said he hopes they will come together with Republicans to address the issue.
“There is a great deal of bipartisan consensus about what ails our tax code, and my hope is that our friends on the other side of the aisle will join with us in a serous way to address it,” he said. “Because the American people deserve a tax system that works for them instead of against them. They deserve a tax code that encourages companies to bring jobs home instead of encouraging just the opposite. Americans deserve true comprehensive tax reform.”
Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Thune noted that GOP lawmakers will have to bridge some policy disagreements on what direction they will take while crafting the legislation.
“Well, I think our conference is in different places. We have people who are going to be in the revenue neutral, probably statically scored,” Thune told reporters Wednesday. “Some it’ll be revenue neutral, dynamically scored. Some would actually like to probably go beyond that…right now, we’ll have to figure out exactly, kind of, what the sort of the guardrails are in terms of where our caucus is and figure out what we can get passed.”
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a staunch conservative, said while there are some differences, he thinks it will be easier for members to come to a consensus on tax reform than it was for health care.
“I think taxes are different in the sense that we’re not trying to fix everything in one sector of the economy — we’re just trying to reform the tax code. And for me, I think the biggest debate will be, conservatives, we agree with the president, we should have a tax cut,” he told reporters.
Paul said he is more willing to vote for a tax reform bill that doesn’t meet all of his goals than a health care bill he doesn’t think will significantly bring down premiums.
“I think the establishment Republicans want to do sort of a tax shifting bill, a revenue neutral bill — and so I think that’ll be the big debate,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s a debate that puts it at such odds that even if I don’t win in the end, it’s not a tax cut that I won’t be tempted to vote for a bill that reforms taxes, even though I would prefer a tax cut. So I don’t think we’re at such odds that something won’t be done.”
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