Republicans plan to pass a deficit increasing tax-reform proposal, but the Pay-As-You-Go Act (PAYGO) requires that legislation cannot increase the deficit within a five-year or ten-year window. If legislation would increase the deficit in either window, an offsetting, automatic sequestration would kick in. Although the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) […]
Republicans plan to pass a deficit increasing tax-reform proposal, but the Pay-As-You-Go Act (PAYGO) would require a sequestration, an automatic reduction in spending, if tax reform increased the deficit. Republicans could avoid a sequestration by convincing Senate Democrats to support legislation lifting the sequestration. Democrats, however, might not be willing to compromise on an issue […]
This blog post updates two of my previous blog posts regarding continuing resolutions ending a day earlier than intended. Unlike the December 8 date that Congress and commentators believe is the deadline for a government shutdown, a close reading of the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2018 (“CR”) shows that the deadline is likely a day earlier. The […]
Republicans hope to pass tax reform before Christmas so that they can go back to their constituents over the Winter Holidays and talk about their accomplishments. However, because of the Pay-As-You-Go Act (PAYGO), passing tax reform at the end of the year would be the worst possible time to pass tax reform as it would […]
To avoid a Senate filibuster, Republicans are using the reconciliation process to pass tax reform. As part of their reconciliation instructions, Republicans allowed tax reform to increase the deficit by up to $1.5 trillion over the next ten years. Even though tax reform can add to the deficit over the first ten years of the proposal, […]
House Republicans plan to release the full details of their tax-reform proposal tomorrow. If Republicans follow their prior framework, they will propose a 2% tax increase on individuals in the 10% and 33% tax brackets. If House Republicans want to prove that their tax-reform proposal would not be a tax increase on the middle class […]
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has played a prominent role in the recent debate regarding Obamacare repeal and replace proposals. Many Republicans likely hoped that they could have voted on the proposals without first having CBO’s estimates bolster opposition to the proposals. After this failure to repeal and replace Obamacare, Senate Republicans plan to include in […]