People across income levels will see a tax cut of some sort under the bill, though most of the benefits will go to top earners. By February, federal income tax withholding is expected to be adjusted in paychecks, but for most people the changes may not be apparent until April 2019, when 2018 taxes will be due for annual filers.
The GOP has long sought a big overhaul of the tax code to simplify it by eliminating complex tax breaks and lowering rates, but in the end, the tax bill did not do much to actually simplify the code.
Individual tax rates are cut for eight years, though a future Congress could choose to extend them instead of allowing an effective tax increase to take place at the end of 2025. "We have no intention of allowing that to happen," Ryan, R-Wis., said to CBS This Morning on Wednesday.
The projection that the bill would add $1.5 trillion to the deficit over 10 years grows to $2 trillion if those individual tax cuts are made permanent, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., referred in a floor speech to "the ludicrous Republican insistence -- their claim -- that these giveaways to the wealthiest will pay for themselves." GOP leaders have insisted that reducing taxes on the corporate side of the ledger will result in higher wages and more money being brought back to the U.S. from overseas business operations, but many economists doubt that the bill will spur significant economic growth or avoid adding to the national debt.
Republican leaders have spoken of reducing entitlement spending as a priority for next year. "We need to keep focused on the spending side of the ledger as well," Ryan told ABC's Good Morning America, when he mentioned revisiting health care spending and welfare reform, which President Trump has also focused on.
Democrats have been unable to break GOP unity to stop the tax bill as they were able to over health care, though they have said they look forward to how it will play in the 2018 midterm elections as they argue it's a boon for the wealthy.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer predicted that Republicans will "rue the day" they voted for the tax bill.