Prez platitudes won’t overhaul tax code
WASHINGTON — There was a familiar ring to President Trump’s speech yesterday pushing a federal tax overhaul. It was heavy on populism, light on details, and assigned all the heavy lifting to members of Congress, leaving the president’s role as angry tweeter-in-chief.
That’s exactly how the White House set up its efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare, and look how well that turned out.
Lawmakers, who return Tuesday after a monthlong congressional break, will have an even steeper hill to climb when it comes to tax reform. Few endeavors are more difficult or politically perilous than overhauling the federal tax code — the last time it happened was more than 30 years ago and it was the culmination of a yearlong effort.
But Trump wants it done before the year is up. As with Obamacare reform, he offered platitudes but no plan in yesterday’s speech in Springfield, Mo., other than the “biggest ever” tax fix that will be “pro-growth, pro-jobs, pro-worker and pro-American.” He offered no specifics beyond the one-page outline the White House released in April calling for the reduction in the number of tax brackets and a 15 percent business tax rate.
He did cite an example, praising President Reagan’s 1986 Tax Reform Act as “really something special” — even though for decades he publicly blasted the law as a “catastrophe” and “one of the worst ideas in recent history.”
But in his demand for quick tax reform amid other pressing legislative matters such as government funding, the debt ceiling, and relief for the devastation left in Texas and Louisiana in Harvey’s wake, Trump is essentially setting himself and Republican lawmakers up to fail.
Bay State U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee that will vet the tax reform package — once someone gets around to crafting it — summarized the GOP’s approach to tax reform bluntly.
“They’re trying to do it alone, seemingly can’t agree on any specific policies, and time and again continue to resort to vague, decades-old talking points — like the president did — instead of taking bold action,” the Springfield Democrat said yesterday after Trump’s speech.
After the Obamacare overhaul failed, Republican leaders found themselves on the receiving end of the president’s Twitter rage. If they fail to achieve the almost impossible mission of quick tax reform, that pattern will likely repeat itself, too.