ELECTION/GOP/TAXES/TRUMP PEOPLE: “A Republican-led panel in the U.S. House of Representatives voted on Thursday [9-13-18] to make permanent individual tax cuts from President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax overhaul, a move widely seen as a partisan ploy to help Republican candidates in the Nov. 6 congressional elections. Members of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee voted 21-15 along party lines to send the measure to the House floor for a full chamber vote expected by Oct 1. But the tax cuts are likely to be dead on arrival in the Senate, where they would need Democratic support to pass. The tax overhaul that Trump signed into law last December, known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, gave permanent tax relief to corporations but set individual cuts that will expire after 2025…Republicans are in danger of losing control of the House to Democrats in November. Voters favor Democratic candidates over Republicans 52 percent to 38 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University National Poll released this week. Democrats need a net gain of at least 23 seats to win a majority in the House. Republicans insist that Trump’s tax overhaul has helped boost the economy. But their message has been undercut by worries about Trump’s policy on trade tariffs and a lack of evidence that tax cuts have delivered promised pay increases to workers.”
–David Morgan, “House panel backs bill to make Trump tax cuts permanent,” Reuters, September 13, 2018 12:33 pm