As the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress survey the wreckage of their efforts to repeal Obamacare, the rush is on for tax reform. But, unless President Trump and the Republican leadership learn the lessons of their health-care debacle, they are racing down the road to another defeat.
Speaking for the administration, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin insists that tax reform will be easy. “Health care is a very, very complicated issue,” Mnuchin recently told a group of financial journalists. “In a way, [tax reform is] a lot simpler. It really is.”
Um, no it’s not.
If tax reform were easy, we would have done it long ago, especially given the widespread agreement that our tax code is opaque, cumbersome, inefficient, and riddled with inequities. Yet, the U.S. has gone more than three decades, encompassing four presidents, since the last time we seriously reformed taxes. There’s a reason for that.
Unless President Trump and the Republican leadership learn the lessons of their health-care debacle, they are racing down the road to another defeat.
The tax code is a cornucopia of special-interest goodies. There will be losers as well as winners. Any change is going to make for many powerful enemies. The tax code isn’t just part of the Washington swamp, it is the swamp. And draining that particular swamp was never going to be easy.
Making matters worse, there is no evidence that the Trump administration has learned anything from its defeat on health care.
https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/why-tax-reform-isnt-going-be-any-easier
Speaking for the administration, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin insists that tax reform will be easy. “Health care is a very, very complicated issue,” Mnuchin recently told a group of financial journalists. “In a way, [tax reform is] a lot simpler. It really is.”
Um, no it’s not.
If tax reform were easy, we would have done it long ago, especially given the widespread agreement that our tax code is opaque, cumbersome, inefficient, and riddled with inequities. Yet, the U.S. has gone more than three decades, encompassing four presidents, since the last time we seriously reformed taxes. There’s a reason for that.
Unless President Trump and the Republican leadership learn the lessons of their health-care debacle, they are racing down the road to another defeat.
The tax code is a cornucopia of special-interest goodies. There will be losers as well as winners. Any change is going to make for many powerful enemies. The tax code isn’t just part of the Washington swamp, it is the swamp. And draining that particular swamp was never going to be easy.
Making matters worse, there is no evidence that the Trump administration has learned anything from its defeat on health care.
https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/why-tax-reform-isnt-going-be-any-easier
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