GOP Tax Planners to Offer a Glimpse of Their Work This Week

by Dramelin 6:30 PM 0 comments

Congressional leaders and Trump administration officials who have been meeting in secret to try to reach a united plan on how to rewrite the U.
tax code plan to issue a kind of progress report this week -- though it may not provide much detail.
Representative Kevin Brady, the Texas Republican who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, told reporters Wednesday to expect a “statement” about the work of the six-member group before week’s end.
He declined to discuss any specifics.
“So read the statement and we’ll come back together,” Brady said.
Brady’s remarks came after the so-called Big Six adjourned an hour-long meeting Wednesday -- a session that may be their last one until September, when the White House and congressional Republicans have indicated they hope to release a unified tax plan and begin work on actual legislation.
House members are scheduled to leave Washington for a five-week recess Friday.
The six are White House economic adviser Gary Cohn, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Brady.
Information about the group’s closed-door discussions has been highly guarded.
As word of a potential statement from the group spread around the Capitol on Wednesday, people familiar with the matter sought to tamp down expectations about the level of detail.
The people described the material as a set of broad guidelines or agreed-upon principles.
“I doubt that it will have the specificity that will give us a clear understanding of what we are doing,” said Representative Mark Meadows, a North Carolina Republican who is chairman of the House Freedom Caucus.
That conservative faction has repeatedly sought more details of the Big Six’s tax discussions.
‘Wait and See’ Cohn, asked Wednesday evening whether the group would share any information on Thursday, said “Maybe.
Wait and see.
” He said members of the group “could not be getting along better.
We’re all on one page.
” So far, the most detailed guidance President Donald Trump has released is a one-page document in late April that steered clear of the tough decisions such as how to recover the lost revenue from deep rate cuts.
Asked for more detail, the White House has responded that key decisions will be made privately, by the Big Six.
A key dispute is over the proposed border-adjusted tax, which is expected to raise about $1 trillion in 10-year revenue that House GOP leaders want to use to help offset the cuts.
That provision, which would impose a 20 percent tax rate on companies’ domestic sales and imports, has faced staunch opposition from Republican senators.
Meadows and other conservative House members have demanded that it be ruled out before they consent to move forward.
The White House has also been cool to the idea.
Hatch, Cohn and Mnuchin all declined to answer questions about whether the proposal is still alive in their conversations.
Brady has previously said he prefers a tax plan that is permanent and revenue neutral, with the savings from unrelated spending cuts going to reduce the deficit.
He said the Big Six and the Ways and Means panel have been considering alternatives to the border-adjusted tax for “some time.
” Border-Tax Window The Republicans’ decision on the border-adjusted tax could provide a window into the eventual philosophy behind their tax bill.
It may determine whether they opt for a straight tax cut, without pay-fors, which would have to be only temporary, or whether they’ll go bolder and aim for a long-term, comprehensive overhaul for the first time since 1986.
The ambitious project of a comprehensive rewrite of the tax code faces innumerable obstacles amid divisions within the GOP.
While Republicans broadly want to lower rates for individuals and corporations, they lack agreement on fundamental questions such as whether the cuts should be offset in order to make them permanent.
If so, there’s disagreement over how to pay for them -- with new revenue alone, or a mix of revenue and spending cuts.
While the White House and Congress generally agree on individual income-tax rates, there’s disagreement on corporate taxes.
Trump has also called for a new corporate rate of 15 percent, lower than Ryan’s proposed 20 percent.
The current top rate is 35 percent.
Another hurdle is a packed calendar that could bog down Congress with must-pass bills to prevent a government shutdown or debt default until mid-October.
The agenda includes approving a budget resolution, a necessary step to advance tax legislation on a partisan basis while avoiding the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.