Lawmakers in the United States Republican Party celebrated with President Donald Trump after their biggest legal achievement of the year. Wednesday afternoon’s public event celebrated a huge overhaul of the United States tax system, the largest change to tax laws in over 30 years.
Trump spoke at the ceremony on the White House’s front lawn saying that it was “fun when you win”. Trump took time to thank the congressional leads in the Senate including Paul Ryan, the House Speaker and Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader.
Surrounded by his Republican colleagues, Trump said that this tax plan was the fulfilment of one of his major campaign promises.
Now Republicans will have the difficult task of selling the new legislation to what polls have indicated is a highly sceptical United States. The GOP and Trump will undoubtedly attempt to turn this tax reform victory into a talking point to aid them in the upcoming mid-term election in 2018.
The United States House had passed the tax reform bill with 224 votes to 201. This bill was amended over a 2 day period after an initial vote failed because of education provisions that would have violated the budget rules of the Senate.
It it evident that Trump critic Sen. John McCain did not get to vote on the bill due to being away from duty regarding health concerns.
The tax reforms were finally approved early on Wednesday morning. The $1.5 trillion tax reform plan includes major tax cuts for private citizens and businesses with some other general changes to how tax law will operate.
Supporters have said that this bill will enhance the United States economy as well as lifting the finances of everyday households.
The Chairman of the House Ways and Means committee Kevin Brady said that the bill would stop Americans from accepting slow growth. He said that it would “make America competitive again” and that families would be able to keep more of their savings, helping the country to grow economically.
Democrats have since decried the new legislation as a raw giveaway to America’s richest people and corporations. They have stated that this tax reform will do little to help low-income and middle-class Americans, hoping to use this as an argument in the mid-term elections next year.
It is unknown when exactly President Trump will sign the bill into law. It has been suggested that Trump will hold off on applying his signature until the GOP waives mandatory budgets rules requiring functions like Medicare to receive cuts to offset the tax bill.
At the White House ceremony Trump commented that it was unknown if the GOP would have bigger victories but said “we hope to”.