On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “MTP Daily,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) stated that by embracing “using growth projections to pay for some portions of the bipartisan bill,” Republicans have given Democrats a tool to argue the reconciliation bill is paid for.
Kaine said, “I want to pay for this bill. Now, just remember, Garrett, there [are] a couple of different ways you can pay for a bill like this. So, first, is you raise revenues. And the Finance Committee is given the instruction that basically says, raise at least, I think it’s a billion dollars, and they’ll likely do that through things like the adjustment of the corporate tax rate. Remember, the Trump administration and the GOP majority dropped the corporate tax rate in one swoop from 35 to 21. We’re talking about taking it back up to about 25, which was much better than many of the companies were asking for in 2017 when we did it. So, you can pay for it by increasing some revenue sources like [the] corporate tax rate. Or here’s another pay-for, if we embrace, for example, negotiated pricing for prescription drugs, that will save hundreds of billions of dollars and we can apply those savings to the healthcare portions of this reconciliation bill. That’s a legit pay-for. Finally, in the bipartisan deal, Republicans have embraced using growth projections to pay for some portions of the bipartisan bill, and Democrats, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, if that’s good enough for you to count as a pay-for, then we might use it, too.”
He added, “If the Republicans are okay with using growth projections, then we’re going to do the same thing.”
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