Colorado’s congressional delegation should unanimously oppose the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and demand a better bill, one that doesn’t explode the national debt and deficit at the expense of the middle class.
Sen. Cory Gardner represents a crucial vote for Republicans who hold a narrow majority in the Senate. He can and should ask more of his colleagues than a fiscally irresponsible tax cut for corporate America.
America’s tax code certainly needs reform. We were optimistic Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan were headed in the right direction. But the final product disappoints on so many levels we cannot fit all the flaws into a single editorial.
Unable even to stay within the generous and arbitrary cap of adding $1.5 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years, Republicans turned to accounting lies to pay for an overly aggressive 21 percent corporate tax rate. To save money on paper, the bill would sunset key tax credits for the middle class and lower-income Americans, meaning that those income categories would be hit hard with tax increases in coming years, or, should their cuts be extended down the road, that the bill spends far more than it purports to.
The American economy would be better served with tax cuts focused on the middle class. Corporate America sits flush on record amounts of cash. If corporations wished to invest in employee wages and job creation, they would be doing so now. Gross Domestic Product grew by 3.3 percent in the third quarter, unemployment rests at its lowest point in a decade and earnings reports continue to fuel a bull market.
The last-minute decision to reduce the tax rate for the highest earners gives the impression that the plan is mostly a sham meant to give a Christmas gift to GOP donors.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, should be applauded for his demand that the bill at least make the child tax credit refundable so those with little or no tax liability would benefit from the policy. The House version of the bill made that tax credit more generous but also allowed wealthier households — joint filers making up to $230,000 — able to benefit from the credit, leaving lower income families behind. The Senate raised the perk to households bringing home half-a-million dollars.
The Republican bill would do some good by reducing some of the worst tax exemptions and credits, notably getting rid of the deduction for state and local taxes, capping deductions for home mortgage interest and limiting business interest deductions to 30 percent of a company’s adjusted taxable income.
But even with Rubio’s hard-fought concession and an incremental cleanup of the tax code, we see too little benefit in the bill to justify its expense.
Gardner might not be able to stop this bill as it rolls through the Senate at an unprecedented pace, but he could take a principled stand on behalf of his constituents.
Reps. Scott Tipton, Ken Buck, Mike Coffman and Doug Lamborn should vote against the conference committee report next week, too. Those four nay votes, coupled with 13 who opposed the original House version, would get that body within six votes of stopping this bad legislation from haunting generations to come.
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