GOP lawmakers concerned over low support for tax bill
Some Capitol Hill Republicans are beginning to fret, as their tax package is being hit with some very poor poll numbers.
A USA Today-Suffolk University poll put its approval at 32 per cent. A CBS poll was only slightly better, at 35 per cent. And both Reuters and Quinnipiac had it at 29 per cent – not exactly enthralling numbers for a plan that is supposed to be a tax cut.
The stereotype that Republicans pass legislation to benefit the wealthy is starting to bake into the bill with just 17 per cent of those surveyed by USA Today saying the package is supposed to help the middle class.
So far the senator sounding the loudest alarm is Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who vied against now President Trump in last year's GOP presidential primary.
So far the senator sounding the loudest alarm about public concerns about the tax bill is Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who vied against now President Trump in last year's GOP presidential primary
On Friday, Rubio tweeted a sentiment once expressed by the late Republican President Ronald Reagan.
'Good time to revisit a landmark 1977 speech given by President Ronald Reagan in which he called for a "New Republican Party" that will not be and cannot be one limited to the country club-big business image,' the Florida Republican tweeted Friday morning.
'The New Republican Party ... is going to have room for the man & the woman in the factories, for the farmer, for the cop on the beat,' Rubio said.
On the Senate floor, Rubio joined with Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, and encouraged their fellow Republicans to vote on a measure that would allow lower income Americans to refund their child tax credit against payroll taxes, according to the Hill.
The move failed.
An unnamed Republican lawmaker pointed out to the Hill, that 'lowering the corporate rate is never popular.'
'Fourty-four per cent of the country won't see anything and then they see headlines about a big corporate rate cut,' the GOP senator said.
The centerpiece of the legislation cuts the corporate tax rate from 35 per cent to 20 per cent, a part of the plan that the Republicans never wavered on.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about the quandary today.
A reporter pointed out that investors have warned that the tax package favors mutual funds over individual investors and critics have charged the legislation will increase the tax tab for potentially tens of thousands of middle-class filers.
'Will the president sign the tax bill, even if there are inadvertent tax increases and some of the criticisms are correct?' the journalist asked.
While Trump has urged Congress to get the tax package done – as it would be his single large legislative achievement this year – the press secretary didn't immediately answer yes.
'As I've said many times before, our focus and our priorities are making sure that we provide middle-class tax relief, and simplifying the code, bringing businesses back her to the U.S., we're going to continue pushing for that and continue working with Congress to make sure that we get the best tax package possible,' Huckabee Sanders said.