Overnight Finance: Trump calls for ObamaCare mandate repeal, cuts to top tax rate | Trump to visit Capitol Hill in tax reform push | CBO can’t do full score before vote | Bipartisan Senate bill would ease Dodd-Frank rules

GOP nears initial victory on tax reform: House Republicans are on the precipice of a big victory on tax reform, but the legislation still faces enormous hurdles before it can reach President Trump’s desk and be signed into law.

Legislation is expected to receive a vote on the House floor this week after clearing the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee in a party-line vote with no GOP defections.

At this point it would be a surprise if Republicans weren’t able to pass the bill through the House.

The number of Republicans publicly opposed or leaning against the bill is in the single digits, and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) appears poised to meet his ambitious timeline of having the tax bill introduced in early November and passed by Thanksgiving.

“I do believe that the momentum continues to move us forward,” Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, told The Hill: http://bit.ly/2yzAsjo.

 

And check out The Hill’s Whip List for the latest on where House Republicans stand on the tax bill.

 

Trump calls for repeal of ObamaCare mandate, cuts to top tax rate: President Trump on Monday said the final GOP tax bill should include language repealing ObamaCare’s individual mandate and cutting the top individual tax rate to 35 percent.

“I am proud of the Rep. House & Senate for working so hard on cutting taxes {& reform.} We’re getting close!” Trump tweeted.

“Now, how about ending the unfair & highly unpopular Indiv Mandate in OCare & reducing taxes even further? Cut top rate to 35% w/all of the rest going to middle income cuts?”

Trump, who is currently in the Philippines for the last leg of his 12-day tour of Asia, has repeatedly called for the tax legislation to include a repeal of the individual mandate in recent weeks. Repeal of the mandate is not in either the House or Senate bills, but GOP lawmakers say the issue is still under discussion: http://bit.ly/2yA0hA0.

 

Trump to visit Capitol Hill amid tax-reform push: President Trump will travel to Capitol Hill on Thursday to speak to House Republicans about their effort to overhaul the tax code, according to the White House.

Trump will speak to members of the House Republican Conference at a meeting at 11:30 Thursday morning. 

GOP Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.) is expected to announce the president’s visit later Monday at a leadership meeting. 

“Republicans have been incredibly unified throughout this process,” White House spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement to The Hill. 

“Ahead of the House’s upcoming vote on tax reform legislation, the president will speak to the conference about how important cuts and reform are to jumpstart our economy, make our businesses more competitive, and let hardworking Americans keep more of their well-earned paychecks.”

Trump’s visit is designed to spark momentum behind the House tax bill, which could come to the floor for a vote as soon as Thursday. http://bit.ly/2iSgkCg

 

CBO says it can’t do full score of tax bill before House vote: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says it will be unable to do a full dynamic score of the House Republican tax-reform bill that would show how it would effect the economy before a planned vote on Thursday.

In an estimate released Monday that said the bill would add $1.456 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, the CBO said it did not have the time to do a fuller analysis.

It said the Joint Committee on Taxation, which provides some of the data for the CBO analysis, was still crunching numbers.

“The staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation is currently analyzing changes in economic output, employment, capital stock, and other macroeconomic variables resulting from the bill for purposes of determining these budgetary effects,” the CBO wrote. “However, JCT indicates it is not practicable for a macroeconomic analysis to incorporate the full effects of all of the provisions in the bill, including interactions between these provisions, within the very short time available between completion of the bill and the filing of the committee report.”

House Republicans have argued that their tax bill will result in job growth and economic gains that will, over time, reduce its negative effects on the budget.

Democrats disagree, arguing the bill will simply bust the deficit. http://bit.ly/2zHCtLK

 

McConnell sees Senate voting on tax reform the week after Thanksgiving: Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday that the Senate plans to consider tax-reform legislation on the floor the week after Thanksgiving.

He also said he hoped the Senate Finance Committee would be able to finish the markup on the tax bill that it will begin on Monday by the end of the week.

“Hopefully by the end of the week we’ll have a Senate version of tax reform out and onto the floor ready to be considered the week after Thanksgiving,” McConnell said in a press conference in Kentucky after meeting with business owners.

McConnell’s remarks follow Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn’s prediction on Thursday that the Senate floor vote would likely be pushed until after Thanksgiving. The Texas Republican had earlier predicted that a vote would come before the holiday, but cited challenges with the Senate’s budget rules as reasons for the delay: http://bit.ly/2yA18kc.

 

Bipartisan Senate deal would curb Dodd-Frank rules: The Republican chairman of the Senate Banking Committee announced a bipartisan deal Monday to exempt more than a dozen mid-sized banks from Dodd-Frank regulations.

A bill from Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) would raise the threshold at which a bank holding company is considered a “systemically important financial institution” (SIFI) from $50 billion to $250 billion.

SIFIs are subjected to stricter risk mitigation requirements, federal stress tests and oversight under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. The deal would also exempt all banks with less than $100 billion in assets from federal oversight immediately.

The bill is sponsored by eight other Republican senators and nine Democrats.

“The bipartisan proposals on which we have agreed will significantly improve our financial regulatory framework and foster economic growth by right-sizing regulation, particularly for smaller financial institutions and community banks,” Crapo said.

Democrats sponsoring the bill include Sens. Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Jon Tester (Mont.) and Mark Warner (Va.), who sit on the Banking Committee, along with Sens. Angus King (I-Maine), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.). http://bit.ly/2yyKgKm.

 

Happy Monday and welcome back to Overnight Finance. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.

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Join The Hill on Tuesday, November 14, for Digitalizing Infrastructure: Building a Smart Future featuring Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands). Topics of conversation will include the integration of smart technology into new and existing infrastructure, changing investment strategies, and regulatory challenges. RSVP Here

 

On tap tomorrow

• House Financial Services Committee: Markup of more than 20 bills ranging from Dodd-Frank Act revisions to sanctions on Iran, 10 a.m. http://bit.ly/2AreOhX.
• House Foreign Affairs Committee: Hearing on Brexit negotiations, 2 p.m. http://bit.ly/2AsvaXh.

 

The week ahead: The House will vote on its version of the Republican tax reform bill in the coming week, as leaders race to get legislation to President Trump’s desk by Thanksgiving.

But Republicans still face serious obstacles before their tax plan can be signed into law.

A Senate version of the plan released Thursday contained significant differences from the House version, and bridging the divide will not be easy.

While the Senate also set its sights on passing a bill before Thanksgiving, that deadline is looking less realistic.

The Senate Finance Committee began to mark up its tax proposal on Monday.

 

Analysis finds all income groups would see tax cuts under Senate bill: All income groups on average would see their taxes go down under Senate Republicans’ tax bill, according to Congress’s tax scorekeeper.

The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) found in a document released Saturday evening that every income group would, on average, see tax cuts under the Senate GOP plan in 2019, 2021, 2023, 2025 and 2027.

The committee’s estimate of the distributional effects of the Senate bill contrasts with its score of the House bill. The committee estimated that the House bill would cut taxes on average for all income groups in 2019 but would increase taxes on average for those making $20,000 to $40,000 in some later years.

The House bill includes some tax credits for families that expire after five years, while the Senate plan does not include a sunset on family-related provisions.

While every income group on average would see lower taxes in the Senate bill, in each year some taxpayers would see their taxes increase.

A separate JCT document, reviewed by The Hill, found that about 9 percent of taxpayers would see an increase of at least $100 in 2019, and about 12 percent of taxpayers would see an increase of at least $100 in 2027.

Some taxpayers in all income groups would see increases. However, greater percentages of those in higher income ranges would see increases than those in lower income ranges, according to JCT: http://bit.ly/2yAqH4F

 

Silicon Valley criticizes GOP proposal to tax employees’ stocks: Silicon Valley investors and firms are speaking out against a provision in the Senate Republican tax-reform plan that would change how employees are taxed on stock-based compensation.

The provision in the Senate plan unveiled last week would tax employees once they acquire shares in a company, instead of just taxing the capital gains on shares after they are sold.

500 signatories, including Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and Y Combinator head Sam Altman, as well as tech firms Uber, Airbnb and Dropbox, urged the Senate to drop the measure in a letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).

“We cannot overemphasize how essential stock-based compensation is to a startup’s ability to recruit and retain talent,” they wrote. http://bit.ly/2zzQ7mr

 

Millionaires and billionaires to urge Congress not to cut their taxes: More than 400 millionaires and billionaires will reportedly ask Congress not to cut their taxes.

The group, which includes doctors, lawyers and chief executives, plans to send a letter to Congress and ask that their taxes not be cut under the GOP tax overhaul, The Washington Post reported.

The letter asks Congress not to pass a bill that “further exacerbates inequality.” It also says the tax bill should not add to the country’s debt.

The letter, put together by Responsible Wealth, a network that promotes progressive issues, says the GOP plan should increase taxes on the wealthy.

Some people who have signed onto the letter include Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, fashion designer Eileen Fisher, billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros and philanthropist Steven Rockefeller.

“I think a tax cut is absurd,” said Bob Crandall, a former American Airlines chief executive who signed the letter. 

Republicans are “saying we can’t afford to spend money, but we can afford to give rich people a huge tax break. This makes no sense,” Crandall said: http://bit.ly/2yzh9qo.

 

Brady: House will not accept ‘total elimination’ of property tax deductions: House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said Sunday the lower chamber will not accept the total elimination of state and local property tax deductions as part of the final tax-reform bill.

When asked by host Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday” whether he can “guarantee” that “total elimination” will not be included, Brady responded, “I can.”

“I’m convinced that this is where we will end up,” the Texas lawmaker said, adding that it is important that Americans keep more of what they earn. 
Wallace again pressed Brady, asking if the chairman is saying the House won’t accept total elimination.

“That’s what I’m saying,” Brady responded.

The Senate version of tax reform would eliminate all property tax deductions while the House measure would allow $10,000 in deductions.

Brady’s response on Sunday comes after Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) warned that Republicans could be facing their “political doom” if they eliminate such deductions: http://bit.ly/2yz4Jic.

 

Schumer: Republicans should go back to the drawing board on property tax deductions: Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Sunday advised Republicans to reconsider their plan to eliminate state and local property tax (SALT) deductions as part of the GOP’s final tax-reform bill.

“Republicans should go back to the drawing board and fully restore the SALT deduction,” Schumer said in a statement.

The New York lawmaker slammed the Republican plan, saying it would provide tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations while cutting tax breaks that provide relief to the middle class.

“The House’s so-called ‘compromise’ would be saying to the middle class ‘we’ll only chop off four of your fingers instead of all five.’ Both the House and the Senate bills would raise taxes on millions of middle-class families, particularly in the suburbs, while providing a huge giveaway to corporations and the wealthy,” he continued: http://bit.ly/2yzvnaV.

 

Mnuchin: ‘Ridiculous’ to say Trump being ‘played’ by Putin:  Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Sunday said that claims by former U.S. intelligence officials that President Trump is being played by Russian President Vladimir Putin are “ridiculous.”

“Well, in all due respect to your previous guests, I think that those were the most ridiculous statements. President Trump is not getting played by anybody,” Mnuchin said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

He added that Putin is key to addressing a series of important issues. 

Mnuchin’s remarks come after former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper indicated earlier on the show that Putin is fooling the president through flattery and manipulation.

“I think he’s giving Putin a pass. And I think it demonstrates to Mr. Putin that Donald Trump can be played by foreign leaders who are going to appeal to his ego and to try to play upon his insecurities, which is very, very worrisome from a national security standpoint,” Brennan told host Jake Tapper.

When Tapper asked if Clapper agrees, he replied, “I do.”

 

House passes bill to curb presidential pensions: The House easily passed legislation on Monday to reduce the pensions and federal benefits provided to former presidents.

Before approving the bill by voice vote, lawmakers expressed agreement that modern-day former presidents don’t need financial assistance from the government if they already earn salaries in the millions.

Under a law established in 1958, former presidents are eligible for an annual six-figure pension, plus funds for staff salaries, office space and other expenses.

Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.), the author of the bill, questioned the necessity of providing funds for former presidents who can make millions of dollars from book deals and speaking engagements.

Benefits for former presidents cost taxpayers $2.84 million in fiscal year 2017, according to Hice’s office. http://bit.ly/2zAJOz6

 

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