Sen. Michael D. Crapo, top Republican on the tax-writing Finance Committee, hinted Tuesday at a possible workaround for the ballooning price tag attached to extending the 2017 tax cuts and enacting new tax breaks former President Donald Trump has floated on the campaign trail.
Republicans shouldn’t offset the roughly $4 trillion it would cost to extend to provisions from the 2017 tax law due to expire at the end of next year because it would simply continue current policy, the Idaho Republican said, adding that “pro-growth” tax policies also don’t need to be paid for.
“If you look at history, extending current tax law has never been offset by Congress,” Crapo said, pointing to the New Year’s Day 2013 extension of most of the expiring 2001 and 2003 tax cuts originally enacted under President George W. Bush. “If it’s literally not changing tax policy, I’m just telling you what the precedent that Congress has set is.”
