Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, says he’s learned from the failure of the GOP’s healthcare plan and will not make the same mistake when it comes to overhauling the tax code.
“One of the lessons I think, from the healthcare discussions was to not rush things, to let members have plenty of time to have these policy conversations among themselves,” Brady told reporters Monday. “And so I think that should continue on that sort of organic timetable, rather than pushing a date that this needs to be done [by]. Let the conversations continue regardless of the weeks, or months, that it takes them to get comfortable with a ‘yes’ on healthcare reform.”
Brady said Republican leaders should not set another deadline for repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.
“Let the conversations continue,” he said. “Don’t set a deadline would be my advice to our members.”
Nevertheless, Brady’s suggestion of a slower timetable for tax reform comes as the effort renew an Obamacare repeal and replacement bill heats up.
As for tax reform, Brady’s goal is to have a package clear his panel this spring but he understands that might not be possible.
“We haven’t set a specific deadline for action by the Ways and Means Committee,” he said. “Tax reform is incredibly difficult. It is the “challenge of a lifetime,” for politicians, he said, “which is why it only happens once a generation.”
He said the last revamping of the nation’s tax laws in 1986 almost didn’t happen many times.
“I’m well aware of the many deaths that the Reagan tax reform endured before it was finally passed into law,” Brady said. “We’re hopeful that we’ve learned from many of those challenges, which is why Republicans got out early, we spent the last five years, now almost six, on tax reform trying to get ready for this moment. So we’re hopeful with this president and Republican-controlled House and Senate, that we can begin the work to unify behind a plan that can pass the chambers and get to the president.”
