Congress is now in the final wrestling match stage of creating a $1.5 trillion tax reform package. House and Senate Republicans must resolve differences in their bills in order to hand completed legislation to President Donald Trump.
You know Republicans want to get the deal done, and you know Trump will sign what Congress delivers. This has been a weird, ugly year-long on political drama and short on legislative accomplishments. The GOP needs to prove it can govern. If a Republican-controlled Congress and Republican president can't fulfill a promise to cut taxes, what can they accomplish?
The rest of us care about outcomes, not crowing. Good tax reform should make a complex economy more efficient and ultimately put money in people's pockets. Some tax deals go heavy on benefiting individuals. This legislation does some of that. But the larger opportunity is on the business side, providing relief and investment incentives to employers. Therefore, our focus is on whether this bill reshapes tax policy in a way that helps Americans become more prosperous by spurring job and wage growth. We believe this tax reform bill will strengthen the American economy and create wealth, so we support passage.
These massive tax reform packages don't come around often. They are too difficult. The last big change came in 1986 under President Ronald Reagan, back when it was practically fashionable for lawmakers to do big deals across the aisle. This time Democrats stand in opposition as, for example, Republicans stood against Obamacare.
Our major concern with this bill is the cost. This plan may cost the government $1.5 trillion over a decade in which the Congressional Budget Office expects Washington to collect $43 trillion in revenue if the economy continues on its current, slow-growth trajectory. If economic growth rises to about 2.5 percent annually, this package could pay for itself. If it doesn't, the nation's $20 trillion debt would rise accordingly. Tax reform, then, is an investment in the economy.