Texas congressman Jeb Hensarling chairs the Financial Services Committee. If Republicans control both chambers after the election, Hensarling hopes the GOP will use much of their power to go after special-interest benefits in the tax code and elsewhere.
Highlights from his interview with the Wall Street Journal editors:
An early gut check for Republican reformers will come next year when Congress will decide whether to once again reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, a monument to crony capitalism that provides cheap financing for selected international trade deals.
Mr. Hensarling views the Ex-Im battle “somewhat as a precursor to the tax reform fight because there are so many vested corporate interests” served by the current tax code: “If we can’t get rid of this agency and the corporate welfare it represents, how will House Republicans ever muster the intestinal fortitude to be able to do fundamental tax reform?” He adds, with some political poignancy, “I don’t know how we will ever have the moral authority to deal with social welfare if we can’t deal with corporate welfare.” …
[H]e thinks a housing-finance reform that ends the dominant role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is possible as well, provided Democrats don’t demand “another affordable housing slush fund on steroids.”
