His immigration order was knocked down by the courts. His healthcare plan was vetoed by Congress. Now President Trump is gearing up for another initiative: cutting taxes. and revising the tax code.
The president says that he should have started with tax reform. That cause should be far more popular than those previous issues, and a victory here could give him momentum for his other priorities.
And yet, though most Republicans have never seen a tax cut they don’t like, this too will likely require a fight. A number of Republicans in Congress are “deficit hawks.” In light of Trump’s desire to spend lots of money on the military and on rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, some Republicans are worried about cutting revenue at the same time. Democrats, of course, will oppose any cuts in taxes as favoring the rich.
Prediction: Trump will win this one.
From Damian Paletta, Divisions threaten Trump’s hope of winning his next big legislative battle: Taxes – The Washington Post:
The Trump administration is planning a much more assertive role in undertaking a broad overhaul of the tax code than it did during the failed effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, with some advisers working to craft a concrete blueprint for specific changes instead of letting Congress dictate details.
But there are divisions with congressional Republicans and within the administration over who should be in charge of the effort — and how ambitious to go with it, say administration officials and congressional aides.
Some GOP allies say they have already produced tax legislation and it would not make sense for the White House to produce its own. Key division points could be about whether to seek a broad overhaul of the tax code or whether to limit it to more specific provisions — such as those affecting corporations — and whether such an initiative could increase the deficit without offsetting spending cuts or changes to tax policy. Also highly controversial is a proposal to impose a new tax affecting imports.
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Illustration by Mike Licht, Flickr, Creative Commons license.
His immigration order was knocked down by the courts. His healthcare plan was vetoed by Congress. Now President Trump is gearing up for another initiative: cutting taxes. and revising the tax code.
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