Its not deliberate targeting so much as the people who are likely to vote for the bill arent going to the mat" for issues like SALT or public sector jobs and schools, said Rohit Kumar, a former deputy chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who now oversees tax policy for Pricewaterhousecoopers LLP. So it becomes the path of least resistance.
Julia Lawless, a spokeswoman for Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, said Democrats had ample opportunity to offer input, file amendments and work to help shape the final product.
While Democrats are poised to lose, conservatives have been bolstered by some of the tax plans changes.
The Senate bill opens up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, something Senator Lisa Murkowski had pushed for and environmentalists have been battling for years. The House legislation repeals the 1954 Johnson amendment that prohibits tax-exempt nonprofits like churches from supporting or opposing political candidates -- a move welcomed by evangelicals.
The House bill also grants 529 tax breaks for parents of unborn children, a provision that reproductive-rights advocates fear will threaten legal abortion.
Reagan, Bush Cuts
The last major tax cuts -- in the 1980s under Ronald Reagan and early 2000s under George W. Bush -- were approved with bipartisan support. Until the ACA, which extended coverage to millions of Americans by imposing higher taxes on wealthy people and health industry groups, major legislation was often done with the backing of both parties.
Whatever their motives may be for particular provisions, Republicans are well-aware of their effects, said William Galston, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution.
One of the definitions of justice offered in Platos Republic is doing good to your friends and harm to your enemies, Galston said. I think its fair to say the Republican leadership takes that definition of justice very seriously.
