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House conservatives prepared to defer to Senate tax plan

by Niv Elis - 10/24/17 12:57 PM ET

House conservatives say they’re prepared to take the Senate version of a tax-reform plan over their own in order to move forward with the legislation.

“I see us taking it,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) at a “conversation with conservatives” event in the Capitol Tuesday. “If you look at every major issue that comes before the 115th Congress, we do what the Senate wants. Long live the Senate.”

Members of the House GOP have loudly complained about the Senate’s inability to pass major legislation, stalling their agenda.

Gaetz said that the House would have passed nearly any health-care bill the Senate was able to muster in the ObamaCare repeal debate, and was prepared to vote on the “atrociously bad” Senate version of the budget this week because it was all the Senate could muster.

While some conservatives dislike aspects of the Senate plan, Gaetz said most are willing to adopt it to accomplish their legislative agenda rather than send their version back to the Senate, where it will stall.

“Frankly, all the work that the House is going to do, and the Ways and Means Committee is going to do for a House tax bill is like arguing the number of angels on the head of a pin, because we all know that at the end of the day, no matter what we send to the Senate, it will be given no more serious consideration than any of the other stuff we’ve sent to the Senate,” he added.{mosads}

Other influential conservatives agreed that the Senate version would be more influential, but Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.) said there were red lines.

“Our red line as a caucus will be, we basically have to stay with the framework,” he said, citing a 20 percent corporate tax rate, a 25 percent rate for S corporations, repatriation, and a middle class tax cut.

“If the agreement fails to achieve those basic metrics, then this group, and I think many more in our conference, will cross the red line fairly quickly,” Brat said.

Tags David Brat House Senate Tax reform