Joseph Lawler of the Washington Examiner explores the prospects for tax reform in the early days of Donald Trump’s presidential term.
Tax reform could be the top agenda item for a unified Republican administration and Congress in January.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said Wednesday that tax reform would be an item for the first 100 days for congressional Republicans and Donald Trump’s White House. “He’s made it clear … he’s ready to move on the economy,” the Texan said in an interview on CNBC.
Brady and House Speaker Paul Ryan this year announced a blueprint for tax reform. That plan is “very close” to Trump’s revised campaign tax platform, Brady said.
Brady’s committee would be responsible for writing legislative text. “We’re ready, and we’re going to be ready,” Brady said.
Tax reform is the top legislative item on the 100-day action plan Trump announced in October.
There’s a catch, though: Trump also called for swift action on tariffs to penalize companies that relocate operations to other countries and then reimport goods to the U.S. That approach likely will cause a rift with Republicans such as Brady and Ryan, who support liberalized trade.
During a press conference earlier in the day, Ryan declined to go into specificity about plans for the first 100 days and whether he would use budget tools that would allow Congress to pass legislation with only 51 votes in the Senate, saying that he wanted to sit down with Trump first.
The Trump campaign and House Republicans agree on the broad contours of tax reform, especially lowering tax rates on individuals and businesses and eliminating tax breaks to broaden the tax base.
One of the biggest differences, however, is that Trump has called for a multi-trillion dollar tax cut, while House Republicans have said that tax reform should not add significantly to the deficit, after the additional revenues from faster economic growth are taken into account.
