Ryan vows tax overhaul will get passed this year
Koch brothers plan to spend millions to lobby for the effort.
House WASHINGTON — Speaker Paul Ryan insisted Thursday that Congress will overhaul the U.S. tax system this year despite the chaos consuming Washing- ton and the political divi- sions in Congress.
“I feel very confident we can meet this goal,” Ryan told reporters.
Ryan was bolstered by skit- tish business leaders who began an aggressive lobbying effort to ensure that their vision for a tax overhaul isn’t lost in the daily distractions of President Donald Trump’s administration.
The conservative Koch brothers’ political network announced it is preparing to spend millions of dollars toward that end. The announcement came on the same day business executives told a congressional commit- tee that the current tax system makes U.S. companies uncompetitive.
“We no longer live in a world where the U.S. can set a corporate tax rate without considering what our inter- national competition looks like,” John Stephen, AT&T’s chief financial officer, told the House Ways and Means Committee. “Countries are vigorously competing against each other to attract investment and jobs, but the U.S. has done little to retain its competitive advantage.”
The Trump administra- tion released a one-page tax proposal last month that included massive tax cuts for businesses, a bigger standard tax deduction for middle-in- come families, lower investment taxes for the wealthy, and an end to the federal estate tax for the very rich.
Thirty-one years after the last overhaul, there is wide- spread agreement that the current tax system is too complicated and picks too many winners and losers, compelling companies to make business decisions based on tax implications instead of sound business reasons. But there are deep political and practical disagreements over how to fix it.
“I do believe that there are very serious and legitimate concerns to any ver- sion of tax reform, and we’re going to have to accommodate those concerns as we move to a new tax system,” Ryan said.
The Koch brothers’ push reflects broader concerns from the nation’s business community that Trump’s promise of a tax overhaul may fall victim to his mounting political challenges.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, testifying Thursday before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, said 100 people at his department are working on an overhaul, and that the goal is to bring “meaningful relief ” to the middle class and make American businesses competitive.
Mnuchin said the U.S. can achieve 3 percent economic growth or more if the United States makes historic changes in taxes and regulations.
Democratic lawmakers weren’t buying that economic growth would pay for Trump’s tax cuts.
“I think all you’re doing is just adding to the deficit, which is incredibly irresponsible to the children of this country,” said Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind.
Mnuchin replied, “I can assure you we have no interest in doing that.”