U.S. President Donald Trump speaks on tax reform at theWhite Housein Washington D.C., theUnited States, on Dec. 13, 2017. U.S. House and Senate Republicans secured a deal Wednesday on the final version of a tax cut bill, paving the way for the U.S. Congress to pass the bill and handle a major legislative achievement to President Donald Trump before Christmas. (Xinhua/Ting Shen)
WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump made his closing argument on tax reform Wednesday afternoon, saying the Congress is days away from passing the tax cut bill.
"We want to give you, the American people, a giant tax cut for Christmas. And when I say giant, I mean giant," Trump said, just hours after the U.S. House and Senate Republicans secured a deal on the final version of a tax cut bill.
The full details of the deal will be released later this week, and both chambers of Congress are set to vote for the bill as early as next Monday, making it possible for Trump to sign it before Christmas.
Since the House and Senate passed a tax cut bill respectively last month and in early December, Republican lawmakers from both chambers have been working hard to reconcile the differences between the two bills.
The final version of the tax cut bill would set the corporate tax rate at 21 percent, slightly higher than the 20 percent in both House and Senate bills, but much lower than the current 35-percent headline rate.
Republicans also agreed to lower the top individual income tax rate from the current 39.6 percent to 37 percent, lower than the top rate in both House and Senate bills.
"It's a massive tax cut for the middle class," said Trump. "It's about jobs."
However, nonpartisan researches done by the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Congressional Budget Office show that the tax cut bill disproportionally favors big corporations and rich people.
