Democratic strategist James Carville on Wednesday predicted the country will “probably” enter a recession, regardless of whether the Republican tax and spending bill passes through Congress.
In an interview on NewsNation’s “Cuomo,” anchor Chris Cuomo asked the longtime strategist to address the claim from many Republicans that failure to pass the bill — which extends the 2017 tax cuts — would send the country into a recession.
“Well, you pass it, we’ll probably go into a recession. If you don’t pass it, we’ll probably go into a recession. I’m not totally sure it’s related,” Carville said during a panel discussion that also included Bill O’Reilly and Stephen A. Smith.
Carville conceded, however, that Republicans were in a tough position as they considered their vote on the bill.
“I think Bill is correct,” he said, referring to O’Reilly, who supports the legislation. “I mean, the Republicans don’t have much choice. They got to pass something.”
“And when it is finally said and done, I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but it’ll look like something,” Carville added.
House Republicans voted overnight to advance the massive tax and spending bill, which is expected to head to a final vote on Thursday.
The legislation includes an extension of the 2017 tax law that cut many individual income tax rates but is slated to expire at the end of this year.
Under current law, marginal rates are 10 percent, 12 percent, 22 percent, 24 percent, 32 percent, 35 percent, and 37 percent moving up the income spectrum. The new GOP law would lock those rates in place.
The extension of those rates would reduce federal revenues by $2.2 trillion through 2034, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.
If they were allowed to lapse, rates would change to 10 percent, 15 percent, 25 percent, 28 percent, 33 percent, 35 percent, and 39.6 percent. Only the 10 percent and 35 percent rates were left untouched by the 2017 tax cut measure.
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