If you think the Republicans in the Senate are the more sane members of the MAGA GOP, think again. They’re just as cravenly partisan as the nuts in the House. Remember Thom Tillis, the “brave” Senator who has been criticizing the House Republicans for refusing to even consider the border and Ukraine deal? Well…
The House passed its $78 billion, bipartisan tax bill with a lopsided 357-to-70 vote on Wednesday, in which the measure attracted slightly more Democratic than Republican support as it overcame opposition from hardline conservatives.
Now comes the hard part: Winning over GOP senators. Republicans in the upper chamber are already expressing deep skepticism toward the legislation, which combines several business deductions with an expansion of the Child Tax Credit that would all sunset at the end of 2025.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said Wednesday that he’s been advising Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP Senate leaders that it would be “a mistake” to pass the bill. Speaking to Semafor, he argued that Republicans should hold out for a potential Trump presidency to make major tax policy decisions, especially since Congress is preparing to renegotiate much of the IRS code next year ahead of when large swaths of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are set to expire.
“I think everything should be on the table there, including the future of the child tax credit provisions [that] are being proposed now,” Tillis told Semafor in a separate interview.
Meanwhile, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa told Semafor he was concerned that expanding the child credit would aid President Biden’s re-election chances.
“I think passing a tax bill that makes the president look good mailing out checks before the election means he could be reelected and then we won’t extend the 2017 tax cuts,” the former Senate Finance chair said. He added that he believes the bill would give up some of the GOP’s leverage ahead of next year’s big tax fight, but said he’d take a closer look at the bill once it passed the House.
Though a number of Republicans on and around Capitol Hill have raised concerns that the bill would let Biden send out cash around election time, tax experts have dismissed those fears as essentially a misunderstanding. The GOP-led House Ways and Means panel said in a recent statement that the Biden administration is “explicitly prohibited” from sending “politically-timed refund checks.”
They are criticizing the House kooks for demanding a stronger border bill because of the “crisis” and then refusing to pass it because only Trump can really fix it and it might help Biden in the election. The only difference here is that Republicans in the Senate don’t care about poor families. And it might help Biden in the election.
There are no Republicans “grown-ups” in the room. Ever. Because there are no Republican grown-ups.