After failing to repeal Obamacare, House Republicans are moving on to the supposedly easier task of tax reform. Tax reform is long overdue given our high tax rates, countless loopholes, and archaic international tax system that is driving corporations and income out of the country. At the same time, tax reform has not happened since 1986 (and has occurred only three times since World War II) because it is extraordinarily complicated, and creates a politically perilous number of winners and losers.

Congress has been quietly negotiating tax reform for the past six years. Having participated in some of these negotiations while working in the Senate, I see four major issues that must be resolved to get tax reform over the finish line.