At the end of the day, this may be the biggest "fuck you" included in the Senate Republican tax cut bill.
The meager benefits for middle-class families included in the bill, such as slightly lower marginal rates and higher standard deductions, will expire after just 7 years while the massive corporate tax cuts will be permanent.
via Bloomberg:
Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch released his modified tax proposal late Tuesday that would make middle-class breaks and other provisions temporary in a bid to comply with the Senate’s rigid fiscal rules. [...]
Hatch’s revised plan would sunset key middle-class tax cuts starting in 2026 to comply with Senate rules -- including income tax rate reductions, the doubling of the standard deduction and an increase in the child tax credit. It also ends a tax break for partnerships, limited liability companies and other so-called pass-through businesses starting on Jan. 1, 2026. However, the corporate rate cut to 20 percent from 35 percent and international tax-law changes would be permanent.
Senate Republicans have attached the repeal of Obamacare's individual mandate to afford themselves more revenue to work with, but that wasn't enough. They've also made half a dozen benefits temporary to comply with Senate rules so they can pass a bill with a simple majority using the reconciliation process.
It can't be overstated how much this would screw the middle class, particularly those who live in high tax states. Higher standard deductions and other small benefits are suppose to compensate for the loss of state and local deductions and deductions for homeowners, but the higher standard deduction and others will expire. And then what? Senate Republicans intend to double-dip into the pockets of Americans to make corporate tax cuts permanent.
Senator Orrin Hatch once said he doesn't want the tax cut bill to be "some piece of crap," but this is a shit sandwich with extra sauce.
“It’s mostly all complicated,” Hatch added, later noting: “I want it to be the right kind of a bill. I don’t want it to be some piece of crap, which we’re so used to around here.”
Indeed.