GOP Tax Bill: Winners And Losers And What's Next

Republican House leaders rolled out a $1.5 trillion tax bill this week, a sweeping rewrite of the nation's tax code. We look at what's next and winners and losers.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

President Trump is heading to Asia just as Republicans in Congress begin the hard work of trying to pass major tax legislation.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I'm counting on all of you to help maintain a momentum on the tax cuts and tax reform during that time. I have no doubt you'll be able to do it.

SHAPIRO: That was President Trump speaking yesterday at the White House with Republican leaders. NPR's Tamara Keith joins us from the White House to talk through the next step for this giant tax plan. Hi, Tam.

TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Hello.

SHAPIRO: So it's just been one day since House Republicans introduced their draft bill. What happens next?

KEITH: Well, I think the most important thing to say here is that this is just the beginning. The man for - responsible for ushering this through the House Ways and - is House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady. And he said in a statement today that on Monday he will offer an amendment making, quote, "more substantive improvements to the bill." Brady also spoke today at an event sponsored by Politico's Playbook and explained that the draft bill is far from the final word.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

KEVIN BRADY: As we see where there are areas we can improve, we've thrown a lot of new stuff on the international side, on the small business pass-through side, on interest deductible. We're going with significantly different concepts here. We expect to be incorporating those improvements and fine-tuning it.

SHAPIRO: Tam, there's this common line that with any big piece of legislation, its first day is its best day because after that, everybody sees the things that are less popular about it. So here we are on day two. Do you have a better sense of who the winners and losers in this tax bill are?

KEITH: Well, there's still a lot that we don't know about how the proposed bill would play out for individual taxpayers or individual businesses. But there are some broad strokes. So let's start with a very basic list of potential winners - corporations, traditional manufacturers, many low- and middle-income taxpayers depending on their individual circumstances, some small business owners, very wealthy people with big estates that they plan to pass on and also upper-middle-income and upper-income taxpayers currently hit by the alternative minimum tax.

SHAPIRO: OK. If those are the winners, who are the likely losers?

KEITH: Potential losers would be high-tech and pharmaceutical companies that do a lot of manufacturing overseas, homebuilders and realtors, people in high-tax states or with big mortgages, people with big student loan debt, the sick and the elderly with high medical costs that they've been writing off. Also, Republican Senator Marco Rubio said that he's disappointed that the child tax credit in this isn't larger, that there isn't more help for people to offset child care expenses.

And already today, House Democrats brought out a bunch of people who they say will be adversely affected by the tax proposal. That included Susan Flashman, who said that she relied on being able to write off her medical expenses for several years after getting brain surgery. Here she is.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SUSAN FLASHMAN: Due to my condition and other multiple surgeries, I used the medical expense deduction over eight to 10 years and saved hundreds of dollars on a year on my federal taxes. Being able to deduct my medical expenses was extremely important when I was unable to work.

KEITH: So in short, every piece of the tax code has a constituency, and every member of Congress can expect to hear from all of them very soon.

SHAPIRO: And we've only seen a draft proposal in the House. There's also the Senate. The president wants to sign a bill into law by the end of the year. What has to happen between now and then to make that reality?

KEITH: Oh, a whole lot. (Laughter) And I can just say that it is going to be a Super Bowl of lobbying.

SHAPIRO: (Laughter) That's NPR's Tamara Keith speaking with us from the White House. Thanks, Tam.

KEITH: You're welcome.

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.