Both Senate and House tax bills bust the Byrd Rule, can't pass without Democratic support

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: November 10, 2017 at 1:49:41 PM EST
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Both Senate and House tax bills bust the Byrd Rule, can't pass without Democratic support
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> Both Senate and House tax bills bust the Byrd Rule, can't pass without Democratic support
> By Mark Sumner
> Nov 10 2017
> <https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/11/10/1714439/-Both-Senate-and-House-tax-bills-bust-the-Byrd-Rule-can-t-pass-without-Democratic-support>
>
> The biggest problem with the current Republican tax bill isn’t that it’s a massive giveaway to wealthy people and 
> wealthier corporations, it’s that it’s such a massive giveaway to wealthy people and wealthier companies that 
> Democrats might actually get to vote on it.
>
> On Thursday, Senate Republicans released a tax cut plan that closely tracks the business-friendly bill introduced 
> last week in the House. But that bill has little chance of becoming law in its current form thanks to a Senate rule 
> that requires 60 votes for legislation that adds to the deficit beyond 10 years.
>
> Both the House and the Senate bills have added weight as they’ve worked through the process—and always in the 
> direction of giving more breaks to the top 1 percent. The result is that neither of the bills as they now stand can 
> make it through the Senate without picking up at least six Democratic votes on top of every Republican vote. Which is 
> a very unlikely outcome for the current bill.
>
> In the past five days, three different studies have found that the House bill would provide nearly half of its 
> benefits to the top 1 percent of Americans, while raising taxes on tens of millions of middle-class families. The 
> Senate bill generally sticks to that approach.
>
> The Senate bill does differ from the House bill in particulars. The House bill chops more of the home mortgage 
> deduction, while the Senate bill keeps that deduction—a spot where Republicans know they’re particularly susceptible 
> to attack. To make up the difference, the Senate bill simply takes even more from blue-state residents.
>
> To offset the cost of keeping those deductions, Senate Republicans want to completely repeal the deduction for state 
> and local taxes, instead of keeping it for up to $10,000 of property taxes.
>
> Because Republicans are more than willing to burn those states for a corporate tax break. But it’s still not enough.
>
> Republicans continue to talk about repealing deduction of state and local taxes as if it’s a good thing. They’re 
> working hard to sell the idea that dropping this deduction will put pressure on blue states to lower their taxes … 
> because what would really make New England great would be if it had the same level of educational investment as 
> Mississippi. 
>
> A handful of red states are able to mock success by hiding their tax burden on extraction industries—primarily oil 
> and coal—but the rest are utterly dependent on the support of blue states who pay far more into the federal pot than 
> they get out. Republicans aren’t blind to that. Removing the state and local tax deduction will mean that blue states 
> pay even more to support red states, while getting back even less.
>
> [snip]
>
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