Ahead of House vote, Norquist calls tax relief bill a win for conservatives

Conservative anti-tax activist Grover Norquist lauded the tax relief legislation that House lawmakers will vote on later Wednesday, calling it a bill that blends the Reagan agenda with an extension of parts of the Trump tax cuts. 

“It is a huge pro-growth bill,” Mr. Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, told The Washington Times. “The per child tax credit … is a tax credit per child that doesn’t have an incentive effect, particularly on economic growth, but it’s there to reduce the tax burden on people with kids.”

The $78 billion tax package focuses on expanding the child tax credit for predominantly lower-income families and reinstating expired research-and-development credits for corporations under the 2017 Trump tax cuts. The changes would be in effect through 2025.

“This is a Republican win, because we will have forced Biden to sign the extension of the Trump tax cuts, and he got elected promising to abolish the Trump tax cuts,” Mr. Norquist said. “So, he’s gonna be out there extending the program, parts of the Trump tax cut.”

Mr. Norquist said it’s difficult to pass legislation when Democrats hold the Senate and the presidency. 

“But this is such a powerful issue, that we’re overwhelming the Democrat opposition,” he said. “They’re signing it and trying to smile, but we just won this fight.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, LouIsiana Republican, released a statement Wednesday afternoon praising the legislation that came out of the House Ways and Means Committee, saying “This bottom-up process is a good example of how Congress is supposed to make law.”

“The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act is important bipartisan legislation to revive conservative pro-growth tax reform,” he said. “Crucially, the bill also ends a wasteful COVID-era program, saving taxpayers tens of billions of dollars.” 

But House Republicans are still ironing out issues within their conference. A small group of New York Republicans demanding that the cap on federal deductions for state and local taxes — known as SALT — be raised, a long-standing policy position among lawmakers in both parties from predominantly Northeastern states and California.

These Trump-era cuts instituted a cap of $10,000 per household on SALT deductions, which the New York Republicans want lifted to $20,000 per household for married couples. Previously, there was no limit.

— Ramsey Touchberry and Alex Miller contributed to this report.