The push for tax reform is real and “not theater,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, on Tuesday, stating that his goal was to produce legislation this year.
Hatch, who chairs the Finance Committee that has oversight over tax matters, said that he would forge ahead with legislation to overhaul the country’s outdated tax code despite widespread expectations that reform is unlikely in the last two years of President Obama’s tenure.
“I’ll speak once again to the cynics who may be out there doubting the intent of this process: This is not an exercise,” Hatch told an audience at the Chamber of Commerce in Washington.
Last week, Hatch announced the creation of bipartisan tax reform working groups with his Democratic counterpart on the committee, Ron Wyden of Oregon.
The purpose of those groups, Hatch said, was to produce “bipartisan tax reform legislation that will be introduced and marked up in the Finance Committee later this year.”
Hatch added that funding for highway funding might be provided as part of a tax reform deal. The highway trust fund expires in May, and the prospect of raising gas taxes to replenish the fund is “very unlikely,” Hatch said. Addressing reporters after the event, however, Hatch simply said that he was working with Wyden on legislation and didn’t provide a timeline.
Nevertheless, Hatch also dismissed President Obama’s proposals for taxes, which the president will sketch out in his State of the Union address Tuesday evening.
The president’s plan “appears to be more about redistribution … than about tax reform,” Hatch said.
In previews of Tuesday night’s speech, the White House has indicated that the president will call for tax hikes on high income earners and big banks to pay for larger tax credits for the middle class. Hatch referred to those plans as “just liberal talking points.”
