The Blue Dog Coalition, a conservative caucus in the Democratic Party, has come out in opposition to the proposed tax reform.
“We simply cannot support a bill that, by every kind of measurement, has been determined to add over $2 trillion to the deficit at the expense of middle-class Americans,” stated the co-chairmen of the caucus. “It’s a fact that some middle-class Americans will see their taxes go up and small business owners will face a more complex tax system under this bill.”
The Blue Dogs had so far been open to working with the Republicans on tax reform. Their position paper supports corporate tax reduction, income tax simplification, and emphasizes deficit reduction. It seems like their opposition is rooted in the latter, as they state “Unrealistic, rosy economic growth projections should not be used to offset the costs of tax reform or tax relief”.
This brings to mind the Tax Foundation analysis of the tax plan, which they withdrew because it to overestimated economic growth, that did not break even with deficits even in this overestimation.