As expected, Congress’ summer break didn’t mean a letup in the never-ending debate about capital gains indexing — whether or not President Trump should (or even can) allow taxpayers to remove inflation when calculating their capital gains taxes. Notably, Trump appeared to support the idea, close the door on it, and open it back up again, all in the course of a couple of weeks. A recent action by the IRS may give Trump just the assurance he needs, however.

One honest concern conservatives, and apparently the president himself, have about capital gains indexing is the legal authority of Treasury to do this. This is a healthy question. Conservative legal scholars have wanted to strike down the excessive “Chevron deference” courts have given regulators who too often act like legislators. The Obama administration was characterized by one executive overreach after another, especially on Obamacare and the environment. Bad memories persist of post-Sept. 11 security power grabs in the George W. Bush years. It is no surprise there is a so-called “Article I Movement” (named after the congressional powers section of the Constitution) among House and Senate movement conservatives.