Thune expects tax package by summer: 'Failure is not an option'

Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) reaffirmed his objective to prioritize swift tax reform in the 119th Congress as well as legislation supporting border security and the energy sector in a Wednesday interview with Hugh Hewitt. Thune said he was eyeing summertime as a deadline for the new policies.

“I think that deadline works to our advantage because nobody wants to see a $4 trillion tax increase. And I can't imagine any Republican in the House or the Senate who is going to vote to allow that to happen,” he said in the interview.

“So I think we have the pressure of the expiration next year working to our advantage, creating a deadline out there to ensure that gets done," Thune added. "And like I said, as far as I'm concerned, failure is not an option. It's just something that we can't rush. We need to get it right.”

Thune has proposed two separate proposals for a budget reconciliation package; one would bolster security and defense efforts while the other would extend tax cuts enacted during President-elect Trump’s first term. 

“I think, you know, some wins early, deal with the border, deal with defense, deal with some energy policy. And, you know, these other pieces that are fairly complicated, don't rush them, make sure we get it right,” Thune told Hewitt earlier in the interview.

“And that shouldn't get, those negotiations shouldn't get in the way of President Trump's efforts to secure the border," he continued. "That'd be my view and my argument.”

While Thune acknowledged the pecking order of Trump’s agenda, he lauded the importance of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which allows taxpayers to exclude 20 percent of their pass-through business income from their federal income tax. 

He promised the measure was there to stay under the Republicans slim majority in Congress’s upper house.

“C-Corps got the big rate reduction from 28 to 21. And in order to make sure that pass-through businesses, which are in my state at least, about 99 percent of businesses, also got an equal type benefit, we created that pass-through deduction,” Thune said.

“And we need to make sure it stays there," he said. "So that's going to be a huge priority of mine.”

Thune emphasized the party’s unity in the House and the Senate would be a crucial tool for lawmakers.