Early bumps?Early bumps?
Washington, DC,
November 16, 2016
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By BERNIE BECKER
A BUMPY ROAD? Donald Trump was elected president eight days ago, a result that gave a jolt to previously stalled GOP efforts to comprehensively revamp the tax code. And yet it seems it might have only taken about a week for cracks to start forming in the partnership between Hill Republicans and the president-elect. Here’s what happened on Tuesday: Stephen Moore of The Heritage Foundation, who’s been one of the top Trump surrogates on tax issues for months, pitched to lawmakers at a meeting arranged by House Majority Whip Steve Scalise on a one-time 10 percent tax on offshore corporate income to help offset the cost of new infrastructure spending. Moore suggested that could raise “as much as $100 billion to $150 billion,” according to the Pro Financial Services team’s Colin Wilhelm, and that marrying tax reform and infrastructure was “a potential way to get Democrats to buy into the jobs program.” (The most recent projections found there’s about $2.6 trillion in corporate profits abroad.) Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) told Colin that the meeting started to merge the ideas of the Trump team — which has been advised by supply-side acolytes like Moore, Larry Kudlow and Art Laffer — and Speaker Paul Ryan and House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady. Yet here’s the thing. Right around that time, Brady was also making it pretty clear that he has no interest in using offshore income to offset any infrastructure program. Instead, he wants to use that pile of cash to help pay for lower rates. "I have not seen the details of the package being developed by the Trump administration — I think it's under construction as we speak right now and so we'll have that discussion,” Brady said at an event sponsored by Bloomberg BNA and KPMG, via our Brian Faler. Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.), another senior Ways and Means member, said today would be the first real chance for GOP tax writers to sit down and discuss any tax reform issues since returning to Washington. But Reichert, like Brady, also didn’t sound enthused about bringing infrastructure back into the mix on tax reform. “I look at this as an opportunity to sort of educate the new administration on some of the things we’ve been working on,” Reichert said. He added that GOP lawmakers would certainly listen to a Trump pitch on infrastructure, but “then also take a look at how that might impact and affect all the efforts that we’ve already put forth in trying to reform the tax code.” |
