House Republicans on Friday night rolled out the first pieces of a roughly $4 trillion tax cut they hope to pass in the coming weeks, sketching out plans that would keep key planks of President Trump’s 2017 tax cut in place while offering even more generous tax breaks for just the next few years.
In legislation released late in the day, Republicans made clear that they intended to lock into place the larger standard deduction, lower individual income tax rates and other measures they passed in 2017. Those provisions are set to expire at the end of this year, and Republicans have dedicated much of their energy on Capitol Hill to extending them.
But they also signaled that they wanted to take some of the 2017 tax cuts even further, drafting a series of temporary expansions for Mr. Trump’s second term. The bill proposes adding $1,000 to the size of the standard deduction for individuals — set at $15,000 this year — each year until 2029, with a larger increase for married Americans. The child tax credit would see a similar temporary boost, to $2,500 from $2,000, for just the next four years.
What House Republicans put out on Friday amounts to a first partial draft of the legislation. It does not address a host of important issues, including the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions, Mr. Trump’s campaign pledges to exempt some forms of income from taxes, clean-energy tax credits and more. Raising the tax rate on income above $2.5 million, an idea Mr. Trump toyed with in recent days, is also not in the bill released Friday.
House Republicans are expected to address those thornier topics in more detail in the coming days, likely on Monday, before they bring the bill for consideration in the Ways and Means Committee. Many of the tax cuts released on Friday will most likely attract broad support from Republicans. Those include increasing a deduction available to many business owners, as well as raising the threshold for paying the estate tax.
Representative Jason Smith, the Missouri Republican who is the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement that the bill “will create jobs, grow wages and investment, and help usher in a new golden age of prosperity.”
The tax cuts are just one piece of the fiscal package Republicans are putting together. They are also preparing to cut spending on Medicaid, the health care program for the poor; raise the nation’s borrowing limit; and increase funding for the military and immigration enforcement.
Democrats have lined up against the legislation, focusing their criticism on the G.O.P. plans to cut spending on programs for the poor to help finance tax cuts that provide their largest benefits to the rich.
Representative Richard E. Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat, accused Republicans of trying to hide their plans by releasing the bill on Friday night. “If you believe in what you are setting out to do, do it when the people are watching,” he said.
With Democrats opposed and with only a bare majority in the House, Republicans face a difficult path to passing the legislation, as moderate members balk at deep spending cuts that conservatives have insisted must be in the bill. If Republicans manage to pass the legislation in the House, it will still need to pass the Senate, which is likely to change the bill and return it to the House for another vote.
Even that may not be the end of the saga, though. Along with the larger standard deduction and child tax credit, Republican proposals for Mr. Trump’s calls to not tax tips, overtime or Social Security are also expected to last only for most of the duration of Mr. Trump’s second term. The expiration of many of the new tax cuts could prompt another tax battle in the coming years.
Andrew Duehren covers tax policy for The Times from Washington.
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