Jubilant Republican lawmakers early yesterday pushed on to the verge of the most sweeping rewrite of US tax laws in more than three decades, a deeply unpopular bill they insist Americans will learn to love when they see their paychecks in the new year.
US President Donald Trump cheered the lawmakers on, eager to claim his first major legislative victory.
After midnight, the US Senate narrowly passed the legislation on a party-line 51-48 vote.
Photo: EPA
Protesters interrupted with chants of “kill the bill, don’t kill us,” and US Vice President Mike Pence repeatedly called for order. Upon passage, Republicans cheered.
US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Americans would respond positively to the tax bill.
“If we can’t sell this to the American people, we ought to go into another line of work,” he said.
Trump hailed the vote in an early morning tweet and promised a news conference, likely yesterday, when the US House of Representatives was to complete legislative action on the measure.
The early morning vote came hours after the Republicans rammed the bill through the House 227-203, but it was not the final word in Congress because of one last hiccup.
Three provisions in the bill, including its title, violated Senate rules, forcing the Senate to vote to strip them out, so the massive bill was hauled back across the Capitol for the House to vote again yesterday and Republicans have a chance to celebrate again.
Hours earlier, House Speaker Paul Ryan gleefully pounded the gavel on House vote.
Republican representatives roared and applauded as they passed the US$1.5 trillion package that would touch every US taxpayer and every corner of the nation’s economy, providing steep tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy, and more modest help for middle and low-income families.
Despite Republican talk of spending discipline, the bill would push the huge national debt ever higher.
“This was a promise made. This is a promise kept,” Ryan and other Republican leaders said at a victory news conference.
After the second House vote, the measure would then head to Trump, who is aching for a big political victory after 11 months of legislative failures and nonstarters.
Congressional Republicans have repeatedly argued the bill would spur economic growth as corporations, flush with cash, increase wages and hire more workers.
However, they acknowledge they have work to do in convincing everyday Americans. Many voters in surveys see the legislation as a boost to the wealthy, such as Trump and his family, and a minor gain at best for the middle class.
Tax cuts for corporations would be permanent, while the cuts for individuals would expire in 2026 to comply with Senate budget rules. The tax cuts would take effect next month and workers would start to see changes in the amount of taxes withheld from their paychecks in February.
The bill would slash the corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.
The top tax rate for individuals would be lowered from 39.6 percent to 37 percent.
The legislation repeals an important part of the 2010 healthcare law — the requirement that all Americans carry health insurance or face a penalty — as the Republicans look to unravel the law they failed to repeal and replace this past summer.
It also allows oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
RSS