(Evan Vucci/AP photo)
The Wall Street Journal‘s editorial board believes President Donald Trump’s signature legislation is just OK, but is still urging Congress to send it to Trump’s desk.
Under the headline “The Meh Tax Bill That Has to Pass,” the Journal argued that “The Senate passed President Trump’s tax bill on Tuesday, to exaggerated glee and consternation. Republicans say it is the start of a new economic golden age, while Democrats call it spendthrift and cruel. They’re both wrong. The bill had to pass to avoid a $4.5 trillion tax hike next year when the 2017 reforms expire, but as a reform of the post-Covid welfare state it is a disappointment.”
While the influential center-right paper expressed its approval of the bill’s permanent enactment of various aspects of the GOP’s 2017 tax reform bill, it lamented that “MAGA-era Republicans” are “imitating Democrats in using the tax code for industrial and social policy,” as well as “shrank from more substantive reforms—for instance, block grants for the ObamaCare population, or reducing the federal funding match for able-bodied adults.”
It also rejected Democrats’ critiques of the bill as overwrought:
Don’t believe Democratic assertions that the bill guts the safety net. Savings from food stamps and Medicaid come entirely from policy tweaks that reduce waste and abuse such as stricter eligibility checks. The bill attempts to crack down on state scams that expand food-stamp eligibility and use provider taxes to launder more federal Medicaid matching funds. It also includes modest Medicaid work requirements for adults covered under ObamaCare and makes it harder for states to get waivers from food-stamp work requirements.
“The House planned to take up the Senate bill as we write this, and the Members might as well pass it and live to fight another day. The bill is more than anything the triumph of GOP political necessity, and the end of tax uncertainty is its main virtue,” concluded the Journal.
Despite having passed both chambers of Congress now, the bill still faces resistance from some Republicans in the House displeased by the version sent to them by the Senate now.