GOP To Begin Reconciling House And Senate Tax Bills; Cuomo, Murphy Blast Plan
WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) is expressing confidence that the House and Senate will be able to reconcile their tax overhaul bills.
House and Senate negotiators are tasked with working out the differences after the Senate approved its version on a 51-49 vote early Saturday.
"What people want is, 'am I going to get some relief myself?' The answer, overwhelmingly, is likely to," McConnell said.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump was on the road Monday heralding his tax plan. But the governor and governor-elect of New York and New Jersey, respetviely say the plan will have devastating effects on the Tri-State area, particularly homeowners.
As CBS2's Dick Brennan reported, Trump told a crowd in Utah that he plans to be signing a new tax bill by Christmas, as House and Senate members negotiate for a single plan after each passed their own versions.
"We're now one huge step closer to delivering to the American people the historic tax relief, as a giant present for big Christmas. Remember I said we're bringing Christmas back?"
But new rules for homeowners would hit three states hard, including New York, New Jersey and California.
On Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New Jersey Gov.-elect Phil Murphy, and California Gov. Jerry Brown – all Democrats – held a conference call to blast the bill.
In particular, they took issue with the home mortgage interest deduction. The Senate version holds the current limit of $1 million, but the House reduces the limit to $500,000 for new home purchases.
They also took issue with state and local taxes. Both the Senate and House bills end federal deductions, but they allow the deduction for up to $10,000 in property taxes.
"In New Jersey, about a quarter of the folks who pay property tax pay over $10,000," Murphy said. "Four counties -- four big ones, I might add -- the average property tax bill is well over $10,000."
"There are suggestions that it will drop the value of homes in our states, because those property taxes now are in effect going to go up 20 to 25 percent overnight," Cuomo said.
Cuomo said the elimination of the state and local tax deduction may be illegal and unconstitutional, and he is looking at that possibility. But it is unclear what action he could take.
But Republicans said Democrats are ignoring the overall benefits to the economy.
"We have a very different view of What America will look like," McConnell said; "Our Democratic friends are very comfortable with slow growth and little opportunity.
Back home in Kentucky, McConnell predicted that the boldest rewrite of the nation's tax system in decades would generate more than enough economic growth to prevent the burgeoning deficits being forecast.
"I not only don't think it will increase the deficit, I think it will be beyond revenue neutral," he told reporters. "In other words, I think it will produce more than enough to fill that gap."
Over the next decade, Republicans' tax plan is projected to add at least $1 trillion to the national debt. That would be on top of an additional $10 trillion in deficits over the same period already being forecast by the Congressional Budget Office.
"I'm not one of the total supply-siders who just believes that if you cut taxes, no matter what amount, you turn out ahead," McConnell said. "I still believe in revenue neutrality for tax reform, and I believe this is a revenue neutral tax reform bill."
The Senate bill cuts the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent, but individuals and families would get a temporary tax-cut. On average, a family of four earning $75,000 would see its $2,200 benefit disappear by 2025, CBS News' Brook Silva-Braga reported.
The bill could hurt people living in higher taxed states, many of them Democratic-leaning, because state income tax will no longer be deductible. The Senate legislation also kills Obamacare's individual mandate.
"That's the penalty for not carrying insurance," said CBS business analyst Jill Schlesinger. "The House would maintain it. The Congressional Budget Office says $13 million would be uninsured by 2027 without the mandate."
Other last minute adds include an amendment that spares cruise lines from paying higher taxes and another that opens up part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, something environmentalists have long opposed.
McConnell predicted that the GOP-led House and Senate can resolve differences over the tax legislation and get it to President Donald Trump before Christmas. McConnell said he doesn't foresee any compromises that would threaten the Senate Republican coalition supporting the bill.
But Senate Democrats criticized the bill's hasty final drafting.
"Some of the pages were completely crossed off and text has been replaced by handwritten notes," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) was the only lawmaker to cross party lines, voting in opposition along with Democrats.
(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
