House GOP leaders expect tax cut bill to pass despite NY opposition

WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders said they are confident they’ll pass their sweeping tax overhaul after a visit by President Donald Trump Thursday, even though some of their New York members say they’ll vote no because the bill ends state and local tax deductions.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Wednesday worked to shore up their majority but expect they’ll have the votes to pass the bill in the face of likely unanimous Democratic opposition and some Republican objections.

“We’re going to pass this bill,” McCarthy told reporters Wednesday morning.

But as the House votes, the Republican’s Senate tax bill remains in flux after Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) added to it the repeal of the Obamacare requirement that everyone obtain health insurance or pay a tax — and one Republican senator said he would vote no on the bill.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who helped vote down the Obamacare repeal bill earlier this year, said she was concerned about an estimate that 13 million people would lose coverage if the insurance mandate is scrapped.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) made a surprise announcement Wednesday that he will vote against the Senate version because, he said, it favors large corporations over small businesses. And Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) have not said they’ll back the bill.

Meanwhile, the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee finished its third day of often contentious working sessions as Democrats and Republicans clashed, as Hatch aims to complete the work and vote the bill out by the end of the week for a Senate vote after Thanksgiving.

With 52 senators, Republicans can lose just two votes and still pass their bill.

The House vote represents a significant step forward in the fraught fast track pushed by Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for each of their chambers to pass a bill that can later be reconciled and enacted before Christmas as the first major tax overhaul in three decades.

In his appearance Thursday, Trump is expected to bolster support among House Republicans in a closed-door, midmorning meeting for the $1.5 trillion tax package that would slash taxes on corporations and small businesses and lower tax rates for many filers.

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, opened the debate on the legislation Wednesday evening that will continue Thursday morning before the planned vote.

Brady called the bill “an opportunity” to deliver one of the most transformative tax bills in a generation. But Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), the top committee Democrat, called it a “missed opportunity” because Republicans rushed it through without Democrats’ involvement.

Long Island’s Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) and Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) said they would vote against the bill. Zeldin said he knows of nine other Republicans who have publicly said they are “no” votes. But the bill can lose 22 Republican votes and still pass.

Illustrating the anger on Long Island by some residents, businessman Steve Louro, a Zeldin backer and host of a Long Island fundraiser for Trump last year, resigned as a regional Republican fundraiser Tuesday to protest both tax bills’ treatment of state and local taxes.

“The bill that’s going to get passed is not going to take care of the American people,” Louro told The New York Times. “It’s a disgrace. It’s going to hurt a lot of middle-class Republicans.”

On Wednesday, Zeldin commented on the resignation. “Mr. Louro’s statement represents yet another example of what I have been hearing from many constituents over the last few weeks,” he said.