NOT SINCE the late great Ronald Reagan have the Republicans shown that, believe it or not, they may be capable not only of opposing proposals but actually running the country. “Let’s not waver now,” to quote Kevin Brady, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, and isn’t about to slow down this complicated but fast-speeding train.
Democrats may try to throw up roadblocks and switchbacks all along the tracks, but this tax bill express seems to be running well ahead of schedule. The loyal opposition might like to wait for its newly elected senator from Alabama—Doug Jones—to hop aboard, but this train has already left the station. A-a-all Aboard! The bill is a complex combination of compromises, but those who are squeamish shouldn’t take too close a look at how either laws or sausages are made. Of course simpler would be better—it always is—but let’s not make the best the enemy of the good, and it will be real progress at this critical stage to get any bill at all to the president by the end of the year.
“I see no need to wait for Doug Jones to become a senator,” pointed out Susan Collins, the Republican senator from Maine. “We vote all the time in lame-duck sessions with retired and defeated members casting votes.” So let’s keep moving this bill along. If only to demonstrate that the Grand Old Party, as well as the country, is still capable of governing itself in timely fashion.
This tax bill would slice the corporate tax rate to 21 percent—a much smaller slice than its current rate of 35 percent, but higher than the rate that the president in his unrealistic dreams had said he wasn’t about to negotiate. It was a demonstration that even the most impetuous of presidents must learn to compromise. The new corporate rate would also go into effect a year earlier—2018 rather than 2019—than the bill in the Senate originally called for.
The new compromised bill would also preserve some of the deduction for state and local taxes, giving folks the choice of writing off up to $10,000 in property, income, or sales tax. Businesses would still get to use their tax deductions to further their own research and development projects.
All in all, it ain’t pretty, it ain’t easy to understand, and some of the best minds in the country will still be occupied as analysts and CPAs rather than more productive work. But so long as the country and the economy keep hop-hop-hopping along, most folks may not mind.
“Let’s understand what’s happening today is a sham,” claimed Democratic senator Ron Wyden of Oregon of the Senate’s Finance Committee. “Nobody ought to mistake this conference for real debate.” What it is, is real progress.