Trump administration formally endorses new House GOP tax package

The Trump administration on Wednesday gave its seal of approval to the House GOP “tax reform 2.0” package, with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) saying the president would sign the three measures.

“These bills advance the Administration’s goals of growing the economy, reforming the tax code, and providing tax relief to small businesses and middle-income families,” OMB said in a statement of administration policy.

The House is expected to vote on the three bills this week, but they may not get taken up by the Senate.

{mosads}The main bill in the package would make permanent the tax cuts for individuals contained in the legislation Trump signed into law in December. Those tax cuts are currently set to expire after 2025 because of the budget rules lawmakers used to pass the 2017 overhaul.

The other two bills are designed to boost savings for retirement and other purposes and to incentivize business innovation.

The Senate is unlikely to pass the measure cementing the individual tax cuts since 60 votes would be needed, and Republicans have only 51 seats in the chamber.

All Democrats opposed the 2017 tax law and are against cementing the individual tax cuts. They argue that making the tax cuts permanent would largely benefit the wealthy and add to the national debt.

Still, House Republicans are pursuing a vote so that they can tout the 2017 law and the strong economy that they say stems from the tax cuts.