Congress must pass funding bills to keep the government running before the next fiscal year begins on October 1st, but before they do that they plan to vote for more tax cuts that will explode the federal deficit.
While the tax cuts for corporations Republicans passed last December are permanent, the others are not.
To that end, Ryan want to make them all permanent.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A government shutdown for lack of funds will be avoided in coming weeks and the U.S. House of Representatives will vote in September on another round of tax cuts, Speaker Paul Ryan said on Wednesday. [...]
Ryan also said the House will vote this month on legislation to make permanent the $1.1 trillion in temporary cuts for individuals, families and private businesses that are set to expire in 2025.
Making tax cuts for individuals and families permanent probably sounds good to some people, but these tax cuts were lopsided to begin with. The pittance afforded to individuals and families does not amount to much compared to the tax cuts afforded to businesses. A vote to make these permanent will not benefit everyone equally.
Moreover, we're going to pay for all of this one way or another.
I probably don't need to do the math for you. The GOP's tax cuts including the temporary tax cuts will increase the federal deficit by at least $1.5 trillion. Making more of the tax cuts permanent will increase that total even further and just a little over six years from now the federal deficit could be $2 trillion or more.
And that's assuming so much. That's assuming another economic downturn won't increase the deficit even further and it's assuming natural disasters won't add that much more.
The good news is Republicans can't jam more tax cuts through the Senate even if Ryan manages to pass them in the House. Senate Republicans never initiated the reconciliation process that would enable them to pass more tax cuts with a simple majority. Again.
If Ryan does manage to pass more deficit-exploding tax cuts through the House, that could be his final act in Congress. How fitting would that be?