President Donald Trump announced today he wants a tax bill to pass by Thanksgiving and be signed by Christmas.
The President, speaking at the White House today, also said it will be the biggest tax reform event in history and the bill will benefit the middle class and businesses. He says Democrats may support the proposed bill.
The not-yet-released bill has already attracted ire from one powerful outside group. And House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady announced Saturday he'd already made one concession to assuage concernsfrom northeast Republicans, a sign of the major legislative undertaking Republicans are about to embark on.
Over the weekend, Brady announced he would maintain a key element of the tax write-off that allows individuals to deduct their state and local property taxes as well as income or sales taxes from their federal returns.
Brady first announced Saturday to Bloomberg that the House's tax plan would continue to allow individuals to deduct their property taxes, although filers will not be able to deduct their state and local income or sales taxes under the GOP's plan.
"At the urging of lawmakers, we are restoring an itemized property tax deduction to help taxpayers with local tax burdens," Brady said in a released statement.
Some members had threatened to torpedo tax reform over the House leadership's original plan to completely eradicate the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, a tax break that greatly benefits individuals who live in high-tax states like New York, New Jersey or California. Fights over the SALT deduction nearly cost GOP leaders on a key procedural vote to fast-track the tax plan on Thursday.
Meanwhile, over the weekend, the tax bill encountered an early setback. The National Association of Home Builders announced it would oppose the GOP's tax bill after the group's CEO Jerry Howard said he'd received two calls from House leaders -- one from Brady and one from House Speaker Paul Ryan over the weekend -- alerting him that they would not be moving forward with a plan endorsed by the group that would have converted popular homeowner deductions into a credit.
"I'm baffled," Howard told CNN in a phone call about his group's opposition to the upcoming bill.
"Our members felt like the carpet had been pulled out from under them," he added, noting that his group had worked alongside the ways and means committee for awhile trying to come up with the plan.
In his statement, Brady seemed to keep the door slightly open to the idea, but noted that it would be up to members to decide.
