Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell went to the media this week to lower expectations about tax reform in 2017, a top goal of the Trump Administration.
Why?
It seems that Congressional Republicans can’t take on more than one thing at a time.
McConnell told Playbook Live that they would have to “wrap up work” on the ObamaCare “repeal” bill before taking a crack at tax reform.
McConnell also said, “All of those discussions are already under way, [but] how do you craft it?”
Given that Senator McConnell has served in the Senate since 1985, the question is bizarre. He and many of his colleagues have literally had decades to ponder tax reform.
And for decades, they have done nothing.
Another reason for the delay on the issue, is that Senators are choosing to take the month of August off. Their recess begins on July 31st and resumes in September.
American businesses however are churning along at a pace that has not been seen in decades. They are operating and investing based upon the promise of a 15% corporate tax rate that has been committed by Donald Trump.
If there is even a hint that tax reform will be a broken promise, the recent stock market gains will turn into a bursting bubble.
[Correction: On January 23, 2017, President Trump stated that the corporate tax rate will now be “anywhere from 15 to 20 percent.” The change in the corporate tax rate followed a raise in his proposed income tax brackets that quietly changed at the end of the election. The top tax rate increased from 25% to 33%. ]
