The House and Senate versions of the tax bills lower the corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 percent. Two weeks ago, most Senate Republicans opposed an amendment to change the rate to 20.94 percent in order to provide payroll-tax relief to parents. Moving away from 20 percent was supposedly an attack on economic growth, a betrayal of a solemn commitment by the party, a step on a slippery slope toward confiscatory corporate taxes.
Now congressional Republicans, according to multiple reports, are coming around to a 21 percent corporate tax rate. The extra money won’t be used to provide tax relief to the lower middle class, or even to soften the blow of losing the state-and-local tax deduction for households making between $100,000 and $500,000 a year. Instead it will go to reduce tax rates for singles making more than $500,000 and couples making more than $1 million.
In other news, Republicans remain baffled by why their bill is unpopular.