Rep. Hill believes Republican rift over tax policy can be overcome

U.S. Rep. French Hill, R-Little Rock, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, believes the rift between Republicans over tax policy can be overcome in order to push through the omnibus reconciliation bill that President Trump describes as “The Big, Beautiful Bill.”

On Friday (May 16), the reconciliation bill failed 16-21 in the Republican-dominated House Budget Committee. GOP members are split over a tax deduction wanted by blue state Republicans and Freedom Caucus members who want deeper budget cuts.

A new meeting of the House Budget Committee has been scheduled for Sunday night at 10pm to try again.

“I believe it can be overcome. That is not a new rift inside the Republican conference in the House. It’s been there. It surfaces from time to time mostly on budget things,” Hill said.

“Blue state Republicans are trying to advocate for a larger state and local property tax deduction than was in the 2017 [tax cut] bill. You could deduct up to $10,000 in 2017. This reconciliation bill triples it and takes it to $30,000, but they’re still suggesting they’d like more. So that’s an open negotiation,” he added.

“You referenced some in the House Freedom Caucus who think that some of the reforms to – let’s say for example, work requirements in the Medicaid program – aren’t phased in soon enough. And so they would prefer they be phased in sooner, get more benefit from urging able-bodied people in Medicaid expansion populations to have a work requirement similar to the approach that actually both Governor Hutchinson and Governor Sanders have taken in Arkansas,” said Hill.

Hill also discussed other aspects of the reconciliation process in his interview for the D.C. Edition of Talk Business & Politics. Specifically, Hill said:

• His committee exceeded its expense reduction target;
• Medicaid should only be available to U.S. citizens;
• He wants to see dual-state Medicaid registration reformed;
• Work requirements should be added to Medicaid for the expansion population;
• He hopes a final CBO score will come out on whatever the House Budget Committee approves; and
• He believes the extension of the 2017 tax cuts should have dynamic scoring to capture the additional revenue projected from the cuts.

“There’s an assumption in there that is borne out from the tax cuts in the Jobs Act portion on revenue receipts from growth connected with the tax piece. And so a portion of that difference is addressed through growth,” he said when asked about the imbalance of tax cuts and spending cuts. “The Senate can exceed it when they debate it, and it’s also the minimum that we have to hit. If we could cut more or spend less in the tax cuts design as we go through the next couple of weeks, then that’s also a possibility. It’s very much a moving target.”

Listen to his podcast interview at this link.