House releases $78 BILLION tax bill imposing cuts on parents and businesses: Speaker Mike Johnson faces sticking points over SALT limits and a tacky Republican conference that could make passage next week difficult

House Republicans are pushing for a major, bipartisan tax treaty that would include business interruptions and an expansion of the child tax credit.

The $78 billion bill, which has White House approval, will go to a vote in the House of Representatives next week when lawmakers return from recess.

The package was voted out of the House Ways and Means Committee on a 40-3 vote Friday. Dbecause of some opposition on the Republican side, House G.O.P Leadership plans to bring this up under a suspension of the rules, which would require Democratic support to pass.

Speaker Mike Johnson has a problem not only with hardline conservatives, but also with more moderate New York Republicans who are likely to oppose it because the $10,000 cap on SALT (state and local tax deductions) is not was reversed.

The package would gradually increase the child tax credit from $1,600 to $2,000 and give families who owe less in taxes the opportunity to get it as a refund. It would also give families with multiple children the green light to get the credit more quickly, which would be adjusted each year for inflation.

It would also mean that companies would have to fully cover domestic research and development costs and that the deduction for the purchase of machinery and equipment would be increased until 2025.

There are also concerns about the package from Republicans in the Senate.

“Senator (Thom) Tillis was adamant that he doesn’t think we should accept the deal,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said of his North Carolina counterpart as he left a Senate GOP luncheon .

The $78 billion deal, with cost offsets, was negotiated by House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

The White House is pushing Congress to pass a rare, bipartisan tax bill that would expand the child tax credit and bring back popular tax breaks

Cornyn said Tillis called the payments in the deal “fake.” “I think he has a good point,” he says added.

The $78 billion deal, with cost offsets, was negotiated by House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

Top Ways and Means Democrat Richie Neal, D-Mass., had previously warned that his party might not agree to the deal, arguing that child tax credits had not been expanded enough.

“We are pleased that the House Ways and Means Committee has advanced a bipartisan tax proposal that will increase the child tax credit for millions of families,” White House spokesman Michael Kikukawa said in a statement.

“We are also pleased that the proposed tax package will be fully funded by other revenue measures.”

“While the President will continue the fight to restore the fully expanded Child Tax Credit, which has cut child poverty in half, the bipartisan bill is a welcome step forward, and Congress should pass it,” he continued.

The deal would also expand the low-income housing tax credit to attract developers to build affordable rental housing.

Top negotiator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said these provisions would benefit 15 million children from low-income families and help build about 200,000 affordable homes.

The agreement also provides disaster tax credits, which would provide relief to those affected by recent hurricanes, floods, wildfires and even the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio — a provision that could attract reluctant members from both sides.

It would eliminate double taxation in Taiwan for companies operating in both the US and Taiwan.

To recoup the cost of the provisions, the deal would shorten the period in which new claims can be made for the Covid-era worker tax credit, which negotiators say is ripe for fraud. That currently offers employers a credit of up to 70 percent on an employee’s first $10,000 of wages for each quarter, or up to $28,000 per year.

Besides the tax bill, this notoriously unproductive Congress has yet to address a one-year spending plan or an agreement on border security and aid to Ukraine and Israel.

But in an election year, the tax deal could deliver victories that both parties can take home to voters.

The left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that child tax credit provisions would “lift as many as 400,000 children above the poverty line.” Another three million children would be made less poor as their income approaches the poverty line.’