Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is in a hurry. Pitching tax reform at the National Association of Manufacturers Association, the House speaker promised that Republicans would overhaul the tax code this year. Following up, Ryan said his “personal goal is to get it done before gun deer season.”
Assuming Ryan sets up his deer stand in his hometown of Janesville, Wis., that means Republicans must send a bill to the White House by Nov. 17. According to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, deer season opens the next day.
And that’s remarkable. (Not Ryan’s love of hunting woodland creatures, which is well known.) What’s newsworthy is the speaker’s legislative schedule.
Consider the fact that politics have overshadowed policy as Congress failed to pass major legislation in the last six months. Then consider further that there’s still no consensus among Republicans about what the details should look like. And finally conclude correctly that Ryan is going out on a limb to get this done.
Always promised though never achieved, the last tax overhaul came three decades ago. Promising reform by Thanksgiving, Ryan is setting out to do what no Republican has since President Ronald Reagan.
“Once in a generation or so,” Ryan told the crowd, “there is an opportunity to do something transformational — something that will have a truly lasting impact long after we are gone. That moment is here and we are going to meet it. We are going to fix this nation’s tax code once and for all.”
While there’s significant debate to be had over the particulars, many of which the speaker notably shied away from, Ryan’s bullish projection should motivate Republicans. And conservatives should make a new goal: end 2017 with venison in Ryan’s freezer and tax reform on Trump’s desk.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
