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Article snippet: WASHINGTON — There is a math problem at the heart of the Republican Party’s protracted introduction of a sprawling tax bill, and it grows, in part, from President Trump’s two nonnegotiable demands. Mr. Trump has insisted on “massive” tax cuts, including reducing the top corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent and delivering a tax cut for the middle class. Both of those goals have proved difficult for the Republicans putting together the House version of the tax bill. They are running into political challenges as they try to offset lost revenue to stay within the confines of the $1.5 trillion tax cut that lawmakers have voted to allow. The tax rewrite is pitting businesses against individuals, as lawmakers look for ways to offset trillions of dollars of personal and corporate income tax cuts by limiting popular individual tax breaks, including preferential treatment for 401(k) plans and the state and local tax deduction. Business groups, meanwhile, say lawmakers run the risk of putting the United States at a global disadvantage if it does not reduce the corporate tax rate to a level commensurate with other industrialized nations. The bill, which had been scheduled for release on Wednesday, is now expected to be unveiled Thursday, despite continuing struggles to reach agreement on how to pay for everything lawmakers want to include. Some industry groups familiar with the negotiations said the remaining shortfall was in the hundreds of billions of dollars. ... Link to the full article to read more