The Stakes are High on Tax Reform

Republicans released their “framework” for tax reform Wednesday, combining corporate tax cuts with simplification of individual rates and deductions. The stakes couldn’t be higher for the GOP, with at least hundreds of billions of stock market wealth at stake, not to mention the party’s reputation. Republicans and President Trump have almost no legislative accomplishments to show for their first eight months in office, and are laying their hopes now on tax reform to finally come up with a substantive win. But the broadly outlined plan leaves a lot of details to be finalized by congressional committees, including what deductions stay and go, and the specific income break-downs for the streamlined tax brackets. It makes it difficult, if not impossible, to gauge the benefit or cost on individual taxpayers, though the budget impact is likely to be significant. Tuesday’s victory by challenger Roy Moore in the Alabama Republican Senate primary runoff is a warning to establishment Republicans, who again found themselves defeated by a populist candidate. Trump, who backed incumbent Luther Strange, may have lost, but Trumpism won — and the president and his team were quick to embrace Moore Tuesday. But Moore has a long and colorful history of inflammatory statements and actions that could blow back on the GOP, while his victory is emboldening other would-be Republican primary challengers. Expect more GOP lawmakers to be looking toward the exits as ...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Morning Must Reads Source Type: news