Sen. Mitch McConnell has stated that there was plenty of time for review and discussion of their 2016 GOP tax bill that will add $1.5 trillion (that number looks like this, folks: $1,000,000,000,000 — a LOT of zeroes, with most of the benefit going to corporations and the wealthiest Americans with no expiration while what small tax relief the middle class and poor receive expires in 10 years).
We knew that wasn’t the case. Republicans are saying that what they’ve done is the same as what happened with the passage of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacase.) So, we decided to look into it.
Here’s what we found:
Here’s what CNN reported on June 28, 2012 for the ACA Timeline:
February 24, 2009 — In a joint session to Congress, President Obama says: “So let there be no doubt: Health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.”
March 5, 2009 — The Obama White House holds its first health care summit.
April 21, 2009 — Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley hold the first of three roundtables of health policy and industry experts to discuss the development of health care legislation.
July 15, 2009 — The Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee passes The Affordable Health Choices Act. The bipartisan bill includes more than 160 Republican amendments accepted during the month-long mark-up, one of the longest in congressional history.
July 31, 2009 — The bill is reported out of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce by a vote of 31 to 28.
August 15, 2009 — During the August recess, Obama travels in support of the bill. Tea Party members and conservativeslash out against the bill at town halls. Obama battles a false rumor that the legislation includes “death panels” that could decide whether people live or die.
August 26, 2009 — Sen. Edward “Ted” Kennedy, a leading proponent of health care legislation, dies, jeopardizing Senate Democrats’ 60-seat filibuster-proof supermajority.
September 29, 2009 –– The Senate Finance Committee rejects two amendments to include a government-run public health insurance option in the sole compromise health care bill to date.
October 13, 2009 — The Senate Finance Committee approves Baucus’ landmark bill, the America’s Healthy Future Act.
November 7, 2009 — The House of Representatives passes a version of the sweeping health care bill by a vote of 220-215.
December 19, 2009 — Senator Ben Nelson, a conservative Democrat, becomes the 60th vote needed to pass the Senate version of the health care bill.
December 24, 2009 — The Senate passes its health care bill 60-39.
January 17, 2010 — Obama stumps forMartha Coakley in a tight Massachusetts Senate race against Scott Brown to replace Kennedy. Brown had pledged to vote against Democratic health care efforts.
January 19, 2010 — Brown wins the special election, jeopardizing the health care legislation.
February 25, 2010 — Obama holds a televised heath care summit with leaders from both parties to explain the health care bill.
March 11, 2010 — In a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Majority Leader Harry Reid says Democrats will use “reconciliation,” needing only 51 votes, to pass the health care bill.
March 21, 2010 — The Senate passes its version of the bill, sending the legislation to Obama for his signature. A separate package of changes expanding the reach of the measure also passed the House over unanimous GOP opposition, and will be taken up by the Senate.
March 23, 2010 — Obama signs the health care bill into law.
(View the CNN article here.)
Here’s what the Congress.gov website lists for the House and Senate tax cut bills:
November 2, 2017 — H.R.1 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was introduced.
November 13, 2017 — Bill is passed out of the Ways and Means Committee (with Rep. Erik Paulsen voting to move it to the Senate floor for consideration and vote)
November 16, 2017 — Bill passes on the House floor (with Rep. Erik Paulsen again voting for the bill).
November 27, 2017 — Bill received in the Senate
December 2, 2017 — After an all-night debate, the bill is passed by the Senate in the small hours of the morning of December 2, 2017.
The above information was taken from the Congress.gov website. You can follow the bill(s) progress here.
The bills will now go to reconciliation where the two houses of Congress will work out differences. The House could accept the Senates version with alternations, then the bill would go to the President for signing into law. Or, the leadership of the two houses will decide who will become part of the conference committee to get the bills in line with each other. Where Democrats are the minority party, they will not hold a meaningful position on the committee. Republicans will be negotiating behind the scenes to get members to agree with the language in the final bill
Once the language has been agreed to in the committee, the chambers cannot not amend the new version. It will typically be accepted or rejected as is. If it is rejected, the Congress can continue to work toward a bill that is agreeable to both houses.
So, while the process isn’t completed on this GOP controlled bill, the timeline is much condensed allowing much less open floor debate.