Senate GOP Approves Tax Reform & Budget Plan
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WASHINGTON (CBSMiami) -- In a show of unity, Republican Senators have passed a budget that paves the way toward tax reform.
By a vote of 51 to 49, mostly along party lines, they approved a $4 trillion dollar budget plan.
President Donald Trump was pleased.
The Budget passed late last night, 51 to 49. We got ZERO Democrat votes with only Rand Paul (he will vote for Tax Cuts) voting against.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 20, 2017
....This now allows for the passage of large scale Tax Cuts (and Reform), which will be the biggest in the history of our country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 20, 2017
Sen. Mitch McConnell echoed the president's sentiments.
"We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to replace a failing tax code that holds Americans back with one that actually works for them," he said.
The budget makes room for a tax reform plan that would add about $1.5 trillion to the federal deficit over the next ten years. And it allows Senate Republicans to pass tax reform without a Democratic filibuster, meaning they need just 51 votes instead of the usual 60.
Democrats say the GOP tax proposal is windfall for the wealthiest Americans.
"Essentially it greenlights tax breaks for the super wealthy in this country at the expense of everybody else," said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-MD.
House Speaker Paul Ryan told CBS This Morning that they will introduce a new tax bracket designed to keep the tax cuts from benefitting the top one percent.
"Once we get that budget resolution that tells us how our numbers will work, then we'll introduce the bill which will have that fourth bracket, designed to make sure we don't have a big drop in income tax rates for high income people," he said.
Ryan said his goal is to get a tax reform bill out of the House in early November. That will give the Senate several weeks to consider and pass it before the end of the year.
Before Congress can start working on tax reform, the House must vote on the Senate version of the budget. That could happen as early as next week.
