Passing one “big, beautiful tax bill” is dominating policy talks in Washington, DC.
NCBA’s Ethan Lane says that goal is dividing Congress, making things challenging for the Speaker of the House.
According to Lane, “We’re going to see this week whether he can navigate those choppy waters and get enough of his conference on board to advance this. You know, that’s the reason for using a reconciliation bill to do this, is that it is a simple majority vote. It lowers the threshold, it makes it easier to get to ‘yes’ on this, not just in the House but in the Senate eventually as well. But yeah, those tight margins are still there. They’re not going anywhere, and it does tend to give those holdouts the impression that they hold a lot of power in this process.”
Because of that, Lane says he would not be surprised to see a few false starts.
He says that botes could fall apart this week, meaning lawmakers will return to Congress after the Easter recess and try again.
Lane says that NCBA is advocating to make the tax cuts permanent.
“If you look at the cuts on their own, if you look at the extension of those provisions, it’s about a $4 trillion price tag. So the question then is, is that continued baseline spending, right? Or is that new spending? Because we’re extending them. Well, our argument and others is that it’s a continuation of baseline spending because we’ve been operating under that since 2018. Senate Parliamentarian agrees, and that’s sort of the format they’re using moving into this, but, you know, at this point, what we’re looking at is buying another five years of breathing room on this.”
Lane says that he believes that the earlier this resolution takes place, the better to prove consistency and reliability in the supply chain.
He says that unknowns are causing the biggest problems for the economy.
