What is the current status of the Senate Republican tax cut bill?
That's a good question.
Senate Republicans are expected to begin voting on the bill this week but, at the moment, it appears they don't have enough votes to pass it out of the Finance Committee so it can reach the floor of the Senate.
Various reports indicate that certain parts of the bill are still being rewritten to include triggers that would roll back tax cuts if economic growth doesn't live up to their promises, but that relatively noble goal only highlights the absurdity of the bill.
You see, even if economic growth lives up to their promises, that won't be enough.
“It will pay for itself,” declared Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA). “I would not vote for this bill if I thought it was going to increase the deficit.”
“Now, it might in the short term,” Kennedy allowed. “But in the medium term and the long term, I think it will pay for itself.”
“We have economists saying that if the economy will grow four-tenths of one percent, it’ll pay for itself,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) told TPM, adding that he is vehemently opposed to Corker and Lankford’s trigger idea.
The Tax Policy Center actually produced a slightly more positive estimate that the economy will expand by 0.6 percent, but the think tank also estimated that it would increase federal revenue by just $169 billion; a fraction of the cost of the GOP bill.
I don't think there are many Republicans in Congress who appreciate the full cost of their bill and, among those who do, even fewer of them care. Most of them have deluded themselves to a point where even Wall Street and corporations aren't making the same promises. Republicans are drunk on their own Kool Aid.