Congressional budget hawks have identified the bargain Republicans must address to deliver on tax reform; allow cuts to expire at the five year deadline or extend the cuts and deepen the already perilous deficit.
Both the White House and GOP leadership have sold tax reform on the basis that the generous individual rate cuts set to expire after five years will actually be extended, in much the same way many of the cuts implemented under former President George W. Bush were extended in 2012. While it may serve to make the reform plan more palatable to their constituents, this line of thinking has some Republican lawmakers concerned about the bill’s implications for the nation’s ballooning budgetary deficit.
“The savings, the score, it just isn’t valid because you know that they’re not going to follow through,” GOP Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona told Politico.”You can’t assume that we’ll grow a backbone later. If we can’t do it now, then it’s tough to do it later.”
GOP leadership insists the five year expiration date was included merely to ensure the bill, which will add $1.4 trillion to the deficit, would fit within the pre determined $1.5 trillion budgetary framework. However, should the cuts be extended past the five year horizon, the proposed bill will add an additional $500 billion to the deficit, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Flake’s concern is shared by GOP Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Bob Corker of Tennessee, both of whom, like Flake, are unconstrained by the political considerations that attend those running for reelection.
“I’m always worried about the deficit,” McCain said when asked about the implications of extending cuts past the five year deadline.
Some experts have suggested the bill may be in violation of the Byrd Rule, which states that a bill can only be passed under budget resolution rules if it doesn’t add to the deficit after ten years.
GOP Sens. Todd Young of Indiana and James Lankford of Oklahoma have also raised budgetary concerns, in a concerning development for the slim Republican majority, which can only afford to lose two votes if they hope to pass the legislation.
“My concern is, if you slow down to actually implement it, that’s one thing,” Lankford said. “But when you assume a sunset on something that you may or may not actually sunset, you may set up other tax fights that you have in the future, or set up additional deficit.”
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