Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is among some Republicans who are working to make the individual tax cuts that were included in the recently passed tax reducing legislation permanent. The legislation passed set an expiration date on them for 2025.
From PJMedia:
“We ought to follow through to make the individual tax cuts permanent. We ought to follow through to make expensing permanent. We ought to follow through to make the small-business tax cuts permanent. We ought to keep moving forward and prioritizing jobs, jobs, jobs, because that’s the priority of the American people,” Cruz said during a press conference Thursday organized by Americans for Tax Reform.
The plan is to pass legislation that would change the IRS Code of 1986 to reflect the individual tax cut to be permanent.
Further from the PJMedia article:
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Tuesday that a House vote on permanent individual tax cuts would be “something we will be acting on later this year.”
While it all sounds great to make a tax cut permanent, I’m just wondering what the heck they mean by permanent?
Are they so tuned in to the ignorance of the people that they believe playing these word games will help their reelection prospects? Are they right about that?
Yes, they can pass legislation that will eliminate the scheduled expiration date of the individual tax cuts that was in this last legislation. But does that make them permanent?
Hardly.
Nothing is permanent in Congress. Congressional terms last for 2 years, then a new Congress begins.
It is a very wise part of our system that no current Congress can prevent any future Congress from doing anything. Therefore, nothing is permanent. They can pass whatever legislation they want during this term, and the next Congress can come in and reverse all of it during the next term.
So not only can they not legitimately call these permanent tax cuts, but I have very serious doubts that these tax cuts are going to even last until the original 2025 expiration date that they gave them.
If the Democrats have control of Congress and the White House come 2020, who really believes any of the tax cut legislation the Republicans passed are going to survive to 2025?
Photo by Jamelle Bouie
