Thune: Senate Tax Bill 'Will Largely Follow the House's Action'

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said Thursday that the "contours" of the Senate's tax reform bill "will largely follow the House's action."

"The details are in some cases slightly different than what House did, we took a slightly different approach on some of the major issues but the contours of bill will largely follow the House's action," Thune said on "CBS This Morning." 

"We're all on the same team, we want to get to the same end zone and sometimes we call slightly different plays in the House and the Senate but that's the way the process works," he continued.

The New York Times on Thursday ran a story with the headline: "Senate Republicans Will Diverge From House in Sweeping Tax Rewrite." The newspaper claims that the Senate bill will add several tax brackets to the House's four, and will remove the excise tax that many multinational companies have warned against and deductions for state and local taxes.

Thune would not confirm the number of tax brackets included in the Senate bill, but offered a defense for the ending the deductions.

"In terms of that deduction, it's been around for a while but it also is one that we think subsidizes states that have higher taxes, and by eliminating that deduction it will force states to look at their budgets," he said.

Thune added that this part of the tax code "needs to go away."

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