After months of relentless changing of the GOP tax plan, congressional Republicans have finally grasped a major key that was inhibiting them with the progression of the plan: Senator Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) support.
Rubio begrudgingly refused to back the plan on Thursday until negotiators were willing provide a more considerate tax break to middle-and-low income families by decreasing some of the benefits from those that earn a higher income.
The break is going to be a generous child tax credit that will allow families from a low-to-middle income to claim $1,300 to $2,000 from the original $1,100 if said family owes no federal income tax. The action done to persuade Rubio on the bill is going to be funded by removing the ability for high earners to claim the tax credit for themselves.
The revised Senate bill lowers the income cap by eliminating tax benefits for families who earn $400,000 a year; a $100,000 less than the original bill. Other cuts made to offset for the child tax credit was the ridding of the corporate alternative minimum tax and depreciate the top individual tax rate to 37% from 39.6%. Rubio’s support would allow from the $2,000 child tax credit plan to be refundable, from the original 55% in the previous draft of the bill.
Rubio’s appeasement has also swayed the votes of the likes such as Senator Bob Corker (R-TEN) who also announced his support for the revised GOP plan. On the other side of the playing field, no Democrats in the Senate are counted upon to approve the final bill with their critique of the $1.5 trillion cost and stress put upon, to what they see, as too many tax breaks for higher incomes.
The working class has always been a demographic that has enraptured Washington in dialogue, but with no meaningful action ever taken to create a significant change. Although these plans are not sweeping changes of great magnitude, they will be the necessary steps in the right direction to empower the American working class by restoring economic growth with the bill in everyday citizens, instead of large businesses and corporations.
