Nevermind the crises, here’s the GOP tax bill

Everybody’s talking about taxes this week. Big Republican bill is coming out of the oven. Attention must be paid. Feel free to ask questions.

Does Donald Trump think tax cuts will be his big first-year moment?

For a president, every day is a new challenge to rise to the occasion. If, for instance, a terrorist assault hits an American city, he will want to quickly bring the people together by attacking the city’s U.S. senator and claiming the nation’s system of justice is “a joke.”

So tax reform is a big priority, it isn’t everything. Give me something I can say about taxes that will sound smart when I’m with my relatives over the holidays.

I recommend, “What ever happened to carried interest?” That’s a tax loophole much beloved by Wall Street investment managers. Which Donald Trump attacked during the campaign. (“They are paper-pushers. They make a fortune. They pay no tax. It’s ridiculous, OK?”)

Then, not a word ...

Wall Street investment managers pay no tax?

They generally pay about 20 percent. Which, as Hillary Clinton often pointed out, is less than a lot of nurses pay.

I am not going to talk about Hillary Clinton with my relatives at dinner. It leads to sobbing and ruined appetites.

Sorry. The carried interest reform wasn’t in the initial administration tax proposal, but the White House economic adviser, Gary Cohn, claimed

Trump was committed to it. This was the same Gary Cohn who suggested that a $1,000 tax cut would enable average Americans to “buy a new car.”

Basically, Trump’s most progressive proposal for taxes seems to have fallen by the wayside. Like an abandoned kitten or the release of his own personal tax returns.

The Republicans are always talking about repealing the estate tax. Isn’t that just for superrich people?

Well, it is true that estates don’t get taxed unless they’re worth more than $5.95 million, or

$10.9 million for a couple. It is also true that most people with that much money have already figured out ways to minimize the bill. And special cases like family-owned farms are given lots of protections.

But getting rid of the estate tax is still an important point of honor for many Republicans. Somewhere there’s a child with a $30 million inheritance who needs our help. What’s the tax cut schedule? Is it happening soon?

The House leaders have been flailing away for some time, trying to figure out how to give breaks to corporations, estates worth more than $11 million and people in the top income bracket without making it look as though they’re doing favors for rich people.

And that’s the easy part. After the House, the Senate Republicans have to come up with a plan that will please 50 members of their party, several of whom regard the president as slightly less inspirational than shingles.

I don’t see why we need to talk about taxes now. Nothing will happen for ages. There hasn’t even been a hearing.

That’s really sweet of you, imagining there’d be hearings. Congress doesn’t have public deliberation while it’s preparing big bills any more. It’s totally not Age of Trump.

Almost as out of date as the idea that a president should call the mayor of a city that’s suffered a terrorist attack on the same day it happened.