Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said he would not vote to support an extension of individual tax cuts because it would not pass.
"I think that that is an act of bad faith, to pass something to fit it under the budget window and then as soon as you get past that political peril, then you go and have a show vote to make the tax cuts permanent when all it is is an election maneuver," Flake said at a Peter G. Peterson Foundation event.
The Republican tax law that passed in December cuts the corporate tax rate permanently, from 35 percent to 21 percent, but only cuts the individual tax rate for eight years. Senate rules say that a bill must have 60 votes if it adds to the deficit outside of a 10-year budget window — so the law put an expiration date on the individual cuts, The Hill noted.
Permanently extending the cuts would not be likely to pass the Senate, but Republicans could use such a vote to politically damage Democrats who go on record as being against extending the cuts, The Hill reported.
Flake said that he voted for the tax law, but would have preferred it to only focus on corporate tax. The senator, who is retiring at the end of his term, said the tax law would create enough economic growth to pay for itself.
"I do think that the corporate tax cuts alone will generate that kind of growth," Flake said.
Gary Cohn, the former director of the White House Economic Council, spoke Tuesday in favor of making the cuts permanent.
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