Despite a packed legislative calendar, House Speaker Paul Ryan says he’s still confident that Congress will have tax reform legislation on President Donald Trump’s desk before the end of 2017.
“Our plan is to get this done at the end of the year for law, so that we start 2018 with a new tax system,” Ryan said.
Speaking to the Associated Press Wednesday, Ryan plugged a reform package he said would allow the economy to grow at 3 percent annually. A template for the plan will be released the week of Sept. 25, he said, but he declined to say whether that plan would end up being revenue-neutral.
“The problem is we have a 1986 tax system in the 21st century,” Ryan said. “We’re now on the receiving end in the global economy with the worst tax system in the industrialized world.”
But tax reform can’t end up boiling down to simple tax cuts if America wants to make itself attractive for businesses again, Ryan warned.
“You can’t just do what Bush did in 2001 and 2003,” he said. “Narrow tax cuts won’t fix that.”
Nevertheless, Ryan has confidence in the plan, with House and Senate leaders already largely on the same page. To hear him tell it, even Democrats will be jumping aboard.
“I know there are many Democrats who in many ways agree with [us] on those things,” he said. “There aren’t a lot of centrists left, but those that are left I think agree with us that it’s time to reform our tax system.”
