Sen. Ron Johnson says he wants to fix the GOP tax bill so he can change his 'no' vote to a 'yes' - CNBC News

Sen. Ron Johnson says he wants to fix the GOP tax bill so he can change his 'no' vote to a 'yes'

"In the current form, I wouldn't vote for it," the Wisconsin lawmaker says.

But he says he's trying to make changes to the Senate tax reform measure so he can support it.

Johnson, a former small business owner, said he's particularly concerned about the pass-through rate.

Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

Thu, 16 Nov 2017

Senator Ron Johnson

Cameron Costa | CNBC

Senator Ron Johnson

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson told CNBC on Thursday he wants to fix the GOP tax reform bill so he can support it.

Johnson said on Wednesday he would oppose the current Senate GOP tax reform bill, the first Republican to explicitly say he would not back the plan.

"In the current form, I wouldn't vote for it," Johnson reiterated on "Squawk Box." He serves on the on Budget, Foreign Relations, and Commerce committees. He's also chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. "It's not a real good process," the Wisconsin lawmaker said. "The House is voting on their today. We're going to be voting on ours right after Thanksgiving."

Johnson said he's been working for months behind the scenes to make changes, but he added that he's not going to let his "version of perfect" sink tax reform. "I want to get this thing fixed, and vote for pro-growth tax reform that makes all American businesses competitive globally," he explained. "I care deeply about this country, I care deeply about this deficit."

As a former small business owner himself, Johnson said he's particularly concerned about the so-called pass through rate, which is named as such because the profits and losses of sole proprietorships, partnerships, and S-corporations "pass through" to their owners who are then taxed at individual income-tax rates, currently as high as 39.6 percent.

"We can't leave anybody behind, which is why they came up with the 25 rate for pass throughs," he said. "The problem is, neither the House or the Senate version really honored that commitment to pass-through businesses, which I argue are a huge engine of economic growth."

Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Bob Corker of Tennessee, and John McCain of Arizona have also voiced concerns. They refused to say whether they would ultimately vote for the bill.

Republicans hold only a two-seat majority in the Senate, so the GOP has little margin for defections because Democrats are uniformly opposed to the plan.

The Senate's tax plan, unveiled last week, includes cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent and making broad tweaks to the individual tax system.

— Reuters contributed to this report.