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Ellison Criticizes GOP Tax Plan; Emmer Calls It 'Fluid'

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The first vote on the GOP tax plan is expected later this week. And the changes if passed and signed by the president would affect every American starting with their 2018 tax bill – that's the one you would file  17 months from now in April of 2019.

Do you currently deduct your property taxes? That would go away under one Republican plan.

Also say goodbye to deducting that second home or cabin mortgage interest. One GOP plan would also do away with a deduction for college loans. And that has Democrats like Congressman Keith Ellison fired up.

"We got to tell the story so people know how this bill is going to affect them," he said.

At a news conference Congressman Ellison introduced an AARP member and an American Cancer Society representative who denounced the proposed GOP elimination of the deduction for medical expenses not covered by insurance.

"In 2015 nearly 9 million people took advantage of this deduction and the vast majority of them made under $75,000 a year," Ellie Beaver with the American Cancer Society said.

But Republicans say hold on: neither the Senate nor House GOP bills are finalized.

"It's fluid," Congressman Tom Emmer said.

Minnesota Congressman Tom Emmer and other Republicans say the elimination of these popular deductions would be more than offset by the GOP plan to increase the standard deductions.

Republicans want to increase the standard deduction for married couples from the current $12,700  to $24,000 and the standard deduction for singles from the current $6,350 to $12,200. Republicans are also proposing increasing the current proposed child tax credit from $1,000 dollars to $1,600.

"What we're waiting for right now and hopefully it will be up here in the next day or so is a calculator that you and I, anyone in Minnesota will be able to go in and plug in their numbers based on the House proposal and see what their bottom line is. Obviously we're trying to make sure that everybody gets a tax cut," Emmer said.

Again Congressman Emmer stressed that the current GOP proposals are "fluid." But the pressure from the White House to get some kind of tax bill passed before the first anniversary of the president swearing in in January is intense.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is even warning that if a GOP tax bill is not passed the stock market could crash.

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