GOP tax plan would depend heavily on future members of Congress

Joseph Lawler of the Washington Examiner explains how much of the U.S. House’s tax reform proposal relies on future action on Capitol Hill.

Republicans will rely on future Congresses to carry out a significant portion of their tax plan.

To limit the size of the tax cut to $1.5 trillion over a decade, House tax writers included a five-year expiration of a new $300 parent tax credit that is meant to help ensure that middle-class families don’t see tax increases under the legislation.

But Republicans don’t actually intend for the credit, or several other expensive provisions, to expire. Rather, they didn’t want the revenue lost by the credit to be calculated in the bill and will count on lawmakers reinstating the credit in the future.

“Those are sunsets that will never occur, we don’t believe will ever occur, we don’t intend to ever occur,” House Speaker Paul Ryan told the Washington Examiner at a tax reform event Tuesday. Instead, he explained, they are included to satisfy the Senate limitation on the size of the tax cut to $1.5 trillion.

Ryan effectively dared a future Democratic-led Congress to not pass legislation to renew the credit.