Rep. Vern Buchanan touts achievement, Democratic candidate David Shapiro labels bill a 'scam'

The hard work of pushing a major piece of legislation through Congress is nearly over for Republicans when it comes to the tax bill, but the GOP still faces the tough task of trying to sell the bill to the American people as the 2018 election season approaches.

Republicans talked up the legislation Tuesday as they worked to combat negative perceptions of the bill — polls indicate it’s unpopular — and paint it as a big win for average voters.

U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, said the tax bill is the most significant achievement of his 11-year congressional career. He predicted it will have far-reaching benefits.

“Individuals are going to get more, small businesses are going to get more and I think the economy is going to explode,” Buchanan said Tuesday.

The House will vote again on the bill today after it was discovered that a number of provisions violate Senate rules that allow the legislation to pass by a simple majority, but the vote is considered perfunctory and President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill soon.

Meanwhile, Democrats are gearing up to try and use the legislation against Republicans in 2018. They are highlighting reports indicating the $1.5 trillion tax cut will grow the national debt and primarily benefit the wealthy and corporations.

“This tax scam voted for today gives a giant handout to corporations and the wealthy, including Congressman Buchanan, while hard working people and our economy suffer,” said David Shapiro, a Siesta Key Democrat who is challenging Buchanan for Florida's District 16 congressional seat covering northern Sarasota County, Manatee County and part of Hillsborough County.

The opposing efforts to define the legislation among voters will be one of the major points of contention heading in 2018, and could prove pivotal in deciding which party controls Congress. Opposition to the Affordable Care Act, which, like the tax bill, was unpopular when it passed Congress, was a major factor in Democrats losing their congressional majority in 2010.

Every Florida Republican voted for the tax bill Tuesday. Every Democrat opposed the legislation.

Polls indicate Democrats have the upper hand in public perception right now. Only 33 percent of respondents in a CNN poll released Tuesday favored the GOP tax plan and 66 percent of those surveyed thought the bill does more to help the wealthy than the middle class.

Buchanan said there is "a lot of misinformation" about the bill. He believes it will become more popular over time when people see their tax bills go down.

"This thing is going to prove itself out," he said.

Much of the legislation is focused on tax cuts for businesses, which GOP leaders view as essential for stimulating economic growth. The hope is that businesses will use their tax savings to create new jobs and increase wages.

“I’ve heard a few people talking about being able to expand their companies,” said Christine Robinson, who runs the Argus Foundation, a Sarasota organization that advocates for business interests. “Some have held off from doing that and the timing is right with the economy right now, it might provide that boost for local businesses to expand.”

Opponents of the bill are skeptical that the legislation will provide the economic boost the GOP is predicting.

“Corporations are sitting right now on huge amounts of cash,” said Jo Bloom, a Sarasota activist who opposes the tax bill. “Why are they sitting on all this cash? If they were going to invest in depreciable equipment why haven’t they invested in that now?”

Bloom has been calling Buchanan and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio multiple times a week to oppose the tax bill. She helped organize a rally to protest the bill in downtown Sarasota recently.

Bloom believes the bill will weigh the GOP down come election time. “I think this is just kind of one more nail in the coffin,” she said. “I think it’s going to give the Democrats a lot of talking points, but there are a lot of talking points anyway.”

Despite the bill’s unpopularity, Republican lawmakers largely have been unified in supporting the legislation.

Tax cuts have long been central to the GOP’s political philosophy and the bill is the signature achievement of this Congress. Without it, the party would not have a major legislative accomplishment to tout on the campaign trail and to rally GOP voters.

There is plenty for opponents and supporters to dispute for political gain. The legislation’s potential impacts on the federal debt and on the U.S. health care market are two other major aspects that have been widely debated.

The bill repeals the ACA’s individual mandate to buy health insurance, which many Republicans have long opposed because it imposes a financial penalty on those who don't comply. Democrats view the mandate as critical to maintaining lower insurance costs.

Shapiro pointed to reports indicating the number of uninsured people will rise significantly when the mandate is repealed. “That’s unacceptable and shows that Washington politicians are looking out for themselves, not the people who they were elected to represent,” he said.

Some of the conservative criticism of the bill has focused on projections that it could increase the national debt by $1 trillion or more.

While supportive of the legislation, the editors of the National Review, a prominent conservative publication, called the tax bill’s projected impact on the debt its “main drawback.”

The first bill Buchanan filed as a congressman in 2007 was a proposal to mandate that Congress produce a balanced budget every year. “We spend money like drunken sailors,” Buchanan said at the time, lamenting the growing national debt.

The fact that Buchanan and many other Republicans have long talked about reducing the debt opens them to charges of hypocrisy in supporting the tax bill. Their response has largely been to argue that the debt won’t increase as projected.

Buchanan said Tuesday that the new tax revenues generated by economic growth will balance out the revenue losses from the tax cuts.

“No economic model of the tax cut, not even any of the models produced by conservative economists, backs this claim,” wrote the National Review editors.

Bloom said the bill’s impact on the debt is her “biggest concern.”

“At some point the deficit hawks are going to start looking for that money,” she said. “It’s going to come from Medicare, Medicaid and social programs.”

Wealthier lawmakers such as Buchanan also are coming under fire because even though the legislation cuts taxes for every income bracket, it is projected to disproportionately benefit the wealthy.

"I think it benefits everybody," Buchanan said Tuesday.

Buchanan is more closely tied to the tax bill than most lawmakers because he sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, which was responsible for crafting the House version of the bill. He has long been an enthusiastic advocate for tax reform.

“I’m very bullish," he said. "For 10 years we’ve been stagnant in terms of our economy. I think this is going to put us back where we need to be, which is to have America be the best place in the world to do business.”