After months of private deliberations, GOP leadership and the White House announced Thursday that they are ready to move forward on tax reform.
The so-called “Big Six”—Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch—have been meeting to come to agreement the outline of a plan that can pass both houses, while staying true to the president’s promises for tax reform. Apparently, they have succeeded.
“Over many years, the members of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance committee have brought to the table the views and priorities of their committee members,” the group said in a statement. “Building on this work, as well as on the efforts of the Administration and input from other stakeholders, we are confident that a shared vision for tax reform exists, and we are prepared for the two committees to take the lead and begin producing legislation for the President to sign.”
According to today’s statement, which focuses more on vision than on specific policy, the plan will prioritize “tax relief for American families,” “a lower tax rate for small businesses so they can compete with larger ones,” and “lower rates for all American businesses so they can compete with foreign ones.”
“The goal is a plan that reduces tax rates as much as possible, allows unprecedented capital expensing, places a priority on permanence, and creates a system that encourages American companies to bring back jobs and profits trapped overseas,” the statement said.
In addition, the GOP plan is jettisoning the controversial border-adjustment tax, which would have taxed U.S. businesses on the value of products produced overseas. House leadership had previously endorsed the tax as part of their plan.
“While we have debated the pro-growth benefits of border adjustability,” they said, “we appreciate that there are many unknowns associated with it and have decided to set this policy aside in order to advance tax reform.”
In a responding statement, the Democratic ranking member on the Senate Finance committee, Sen. Ron Wyden, criticized the announcement’s vagueness of the announcement.
“Republicans are dripping tax ideas out like a leaky faucet with no specifics to back them up,” Wyden said.
As Congress gears up to write the bill, the Big Six remains committed to moving on tax reform this fall.
“The time has arrived for the two tax-writing committees to develop and draft legislation that will result in the first comprehensive tax reform in a generation,” the statement said. “American families are counting on us to deliver historic tax reform. And we will.”
