BY JADEN MOUNT
Taxes are perhaps one of the most hot-button topics of the United States. With the GOP in control of the Executive and Legislative branches since the last election, the continuing promise of tax cuts across the broad is once again possible. In the early hours of Wednesday, December 20, the United States Senate effectively passed the GOP “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.” The parties voted along their lines, 51-48 with one abstention, delivering a major legislative victory for the GOP. That is if there weren’t any bumps in the road.
House Republicans quickly learned that they would need a re-vote due to the Senate’s Byrd Rule, also known as the Byrd Act. This rule, according to Time.com, is “meant to streamline reconciliation – the process by which the House and the Senate negotiate over separate bills passed through each change and turn them into one piece of legislation for the president to sign.”
Three pieces of the bill are said to obstruct this act; the Cruz Provision (utilization of college-savings account for homeschool supplies), a second provision on university endowment taxes, and the bill’s title. The changes or removal of these provision from either version of the bill didn’t change the outcome, which adheres to the chaos of the two-party system.
All votes in both the House and Senate have been across party lines, featuring the strong divide between Democrats and Republicans. This divide has been apparent ever since the radical 2016 election and President Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address. With the majority in hand, the GOP has the power to pass almost anything they want, even if the American Public is against it.
Most polls show Republican voters supporting the bill whilst Democratic and Independent voters stand strongly against. Independents are said to be the majority of all US votes, though many will lean left or right depending on the issue. There are some issues the American public can unite almost entirely on, such as the on-going fight for Net Neutrality.
Point being said, the two-party system of the United States has produced too much of a right or left way to go with little to no option in between. Whilst the GOP enforces their political spectrum and repealing laws passed under President Obama, it is possible the next Democratic who happens to be elected might work to do the exact same to President Donald Trump or any previous Republican president’s policies.