Listen to “Why Didn’t Republicans Get Health Care Reform Done?” on Spreaker.
In the second part of our interview with American Commitment President Phil Kerpen, we examine why Republicans failed to coalesce around a health care reform bill despite controlling the House, Senate, and White House and having seven years to prepare.
Kerpen explains how close Republicans came on multiple occasions and why they landed on the best approach when it was too late.
Listen to “What Did the New Tax Law Really Save You?” on Spreaker.
We just passed the deadline for filing federal income taxes, and as the debate continues over who got tax cuts and how big they are, how much did the new laws save Americans in time and money spent preparing those returns?
The National Taxpayers Union ran the numbers for both individuals and businesses.
In this podcast, National Taxpayers Union President Pete Sepp explains the impact the new laws had on compliance, and, ultimately, on productivity.
Listen to “Virginia GOP vs. Dem Gov. in Tax Debate” on Spreaker.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is excited because the recent federal tax reforms mean an extra $1.2 billion is headed to the commonwealth’s coffers, but Republicans say the apparent windfall is nothing more than a de facto tax increase that must be addressed.
At issue is the federal law reducing deductions taxpayers can take on state and local taxes. Critics of the law frequently pointed to high-tax states like New York, California, and New Jersey. It will also impact Virginia.
And while Northam is already drafting plans to use the extra revenue for higher teacher salaries and assist low-income families, Republicans say the responsible thing is to reform the state tax code and ease the burden on taxpayers.
GOP Delegate Nick Freitas says the $1.2 billion is not just some serendipitous discovery.
“If the governor gets what he wants, this is definitely a situation where Virginia taxpayers will be on the hook,” said Freitas. “Gov. Northam is trying to make this into a situation where he has this sudden windfall, and that’s just really not the case.”
And who exactly will be paying higher taxes because of the change regarding state tax deductions?
“Your average home, where maybe you have someone in law enforcement or maybe you have someone in academia or a teacher, when you have a dual income like that a lot of those people fit neatly in those income brackets that would experience a tax increase as a result,” said Freitas.
While Northam describes the the money he would like to give back to low-income Virginians as tax relief, Freitas says it’s nothing more than redistribution and that creates a toxic atmosphere.
“When you punish people for producing, when you punish people for their success, you’re disincentivizing success. (Late British Prime Minister) Margaret Thatcher said it best: ‘Sooner or later, you run out of other people’s money.'” said Freitas.
“No politician has any idea of the various sacrifices that people make to get a business to a point where it’s finally turning a profit. The politicians just show up with their hand out and then they convince other people that are maybe experiencing some difficult times that (if you) elect them, they’ll take from this person and give it to you.
“That just creates a society of greed and a society of envy. That’s not what we want. We want an aspirational society. We want an opportunity-driven society,” said Freitas.
The Virginia legislature returns Jan. 9. Freitas says the slim Republican majorities are planning to fix the tax code so Virginia families do not get socked by the changes in federal law.
“The Republican Caucus and our leadership have all been very adamant that we want to see a conformity bill that does not involve a tax increase of any kind,” said Freitas.
Del. Freitas would like to see sweeping tax reform in Virginia that reduces rates for everyone while also ending many tax credits and exemptions.
“Let’s not make our tax code a contest over whoever has the best lobbyist wins,” said Freitas.
Listen to the full interview to hear what Freitas sees as a much better way to help the poor than to redistribute money from wealthier people and what he sees as another major debate impacting the Virginia economy as Republicans and Democrats gear up for midterm elections in the Old Dominion in November.
Listen to “Stephen Moore: ‘The Tax Reform Has Been Spectacular'” on Spreaker.
The tax reform legislation has our economy booming and the boom will keep rolling unless the Federal Reserve kneecaps it by continuing to raise interest rates, according to informal Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore.
Moore is a Heritage Foundation and FreedomWorks scholar and is also co-author of “Trumponomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive Our Economy.”
He says the 2017 tax reform bill is doing wonders for our economy.
“The tax reform has been a spectacular success, with an amazing amount of money coming into the United States and factories being built. We’re in the biggest construction and manufacturing boom in 50 years in this country right now.
“You see we have the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years. Wages are rising. It’s hard to point to any single thing that hasn’t worked with the tax cut,” said Moore.
He says lowering tax cuts for corporations and small businesses as well as individuals was more about generating job creation than balancing the budget but he says the Congressional Budget Office is already estimating greater revenues as a result of the legislation.
“The Congressional Budget Office has already increased its growth estimate over the next ten years by $6 trillion since we passed the tax cut. The federal government is going to get 20 percent of that, so that’s going to be $1.5 trillion right there,” said Moore.
Moore also rejects the argument from Democrats that the tax reform is just providing a one-year “sugar high” that will dissipate in 2019, although he does urge lawmakers to make the tax cuts permanent.
But the past three months – and especially the past couple of weeks – have shown major losses on Wall Street. If the Trump economic plan is so sound, why is this happening?
Moore says the Federal Reserve is to blame by raising interest rates.
“We’ve got a massive problem now on our hands. The federal reserve is just crushing the economy. It’s sucking dollars out of the economy at a time when we need the feds to be putting more money into the economy,” said Moore.
“The Fed made a tragic mistake on Dec. 19 when they raised interest rates. They should be cutting interest rates, not raising them. We’re in a deflationary spiral right now. Look at what’s happening with oil prices. Look what’s happening to the prices of wheat, cotton, soybeans, and copper. It’s a very, very dangerous situation,” said Moore.
Listen to the full podcast to hear Moore explain how strong Trump’s re-election chances will be if the Fed stops raising interest rates and what those chances will be if they don’t. He also lays out the contrast we’re likely to see in economic policy from Trump and the eventual Democratic nominee.
Reports of Republicans giving up on repealing and replacing Obamacare are greatly exaggerated, according to Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner, who is not only confident the GOP will address the issue again this year but is part of the team trying to make it happen.
Republicans have achieved a few wins on the health care front over the past year, namely the repeal of the individual mandate in the tax legislation, the repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board in a spending bill, and the end of cost-sharing reduction payments to insurance companies through executive action from President Trump.
When Republicans tried but failed to restore funding for the cost-sharing reduction payments in exchange for removing burdensome regulations from the individual health insurance market in the recent omnibus bill, many feared the GOP was giving up on addressing health care in a meaningful way this year.
Turner says that’s not the case. First of all, she says the failure of Republicans to restore the subsidies to insurers was a major blessing.
“The measures that they were considering as part of the omnibus spending bill were really just papering over the problems. And with Obamacare, they were ready to throw tens of billions more dollars into this black hole of Obamacare. It was not going to fix anything,” said Turner.
But Turner also insists Republicans are ramping up for another legislative push to dismantle Obamacare this year.
“Congress is going to have to come back to a full repeal and replace measure and we have been working every week since October to refine this legislation at the behest of the Senate. (Former) Sen. Rick Santorum has really been the energy behind this effort,” said Turner, who also explained the other players in the effort.
“Heritage Foundation, Ethics and Public Policy Center, the American Enterprise Institute, a lot of state-based think tanks and a lot of experts from around the country have been putting together a proposal that we believe cannot only get majority support in the Congress but majority support of the American people to fix this for good,” said Turner.
In 2017, the House of Representatives passed reform legislation but the Senate failed on several different bills. Republican Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and John McCain voted down all GOP bills. Since then, Republicans lost a Senate seat in Alabama and McCain has been home battling cancer. On most days, the GOP holds a 50-49 voting majority.
Turner says the focal point of this effort will look less like the bills that tanked last summer and more like the Graham-Cassidy bill that failed to advance in September. the sponsors were Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana. Cassidy is a longtime physician.
“That bill was based upon a different approach, a federalist approach to return money and power to the states to ultimately empower individuals to have more choice and more control over their health insurance,” said Turner.
“We’ve got to devolve power to the states and they need resources in addition to new flexibility to be able to provide people with the kind of policies they actually want to buy instead of what they’re forced to purchase. They would use the money to make sure that they purchase private coverage and that they have many more choices and that the coverage is more affordable,” said Turner.
She says Obamacare is a proven disaster and is only getting worse because more people are getting out of the system and leaving older and sicker people to deal with soaring premiums.
“Obamacare is becoming one big high risk pool. That means millions, probably tens of millions of people, are being shut out of health insurance. They need a different place to go. That’s what states can do. States can figure out how they can revive their individual and small group health insurance markets,” said Turner.
But Republicans have a problem besides finding a majority to support any legislation. The budget reconciliation rules that allowed them to attempt passage with a simple majority expired in September. Right now, they would need 60 votes to get anything done.
Turner is confident the Senate GOP leaders could ramp up support for another budget reconciliation rule, and she believes this time they would do it right. Turner says a big problem with the process last summer is how the rules were structured.
“They did it backwards last time. This time we’re going to do it the right way, starting with good policy and then create a vehicle to get that enacted,” she said.
So what happened last time?
“What they did is pass budget reconciliation instructions to create the pathway for the repeal and replace legislation they wanted to pass. And they had to fit it in to that channel and it didn’t really fit,” said Turner.
“As one of my colleagues said, they just kept having to pull limbs off of it until it would fit through that process. At the end, nobody really liked the product. We’re doing this differently. We’re starting out by creating a product that we believe can work and that people will like and then they’ll write the budget reconciliation instructions around that,” said Turner.
Turner says the polls consistently show health care is the number one concern of voters and the GOP must make another push this summer.
“How can they go back to their voters and say, ‘Oh, sorry. We know we told you for four election cycles we were going to repeal and replace Obamacare but it was just too hard.’ They can’t do that,” said Turner.
The House tax reform bill is now out of committee and headed for a vote on the House floor, and a leading advocate for small businesses says there is a lot to like in this legislation for businesses and individuals but she says there is definitely room for improvement.
Karen Kerrigan is president of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council and an influential voice on tax and regulatory policy impacting small businesses. Just last week, she sat to the left of President Trump at a White House meeting on tax reform.
Kerrigan says a number of key provisions are very good, especially dropping the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent.
“It’s a really solid bill in terms of lowering rates, making those lower rates permanent, advancing simplicity for small businesses. That was very important, both on the business side and on the individual side,” said Kerrigan.
“We think those lower rates are going to be very helpful to allow them to reinvest more of their capital, more of their profits into their business at the end of the year,” she added.
And tax rates are not the only component that excites Kerrigan.
“If you do have these immediate cuts on the business side and also the expensing piece – you can’t forget about that – full expensing or expanded Section 179 expensing. That’s really going to trigger a lot more investment and a lot more confidence. Then you’re going to see higher growth in the economy as well,” said Kerrigan.
While corporations would see their tax rate plummet more than 40 percent, businesses other than corporations may face a murkier future. While dropping small business taxes to 25 percent, the GOP bill also keeps the top individual rate – through which many small businesses files with the IRS – unchanged at 39.6 percent for those making over a million dollars per year.
So will those businesses, known as pass-throughs, get relief?
“It really depends,” said Kerrigan, who says those making less than a million per year ought to benefit greatly from lower business taxes and lower individual rates. But that relief will not be happening for everyone.
“As it stands, there is a complicated formula, the 70/30 formula, that basically says from a pass-through perspective that 70 percent will get taxed from a wage perspective, which is the individual rate which may be higher for some small business owners. Thirty percent would get that lower rate,” said Kerrigan.
“What we’re trying to do is improve that pass-through rate. So maybe there’s better parity, perhaps 50/50, perhaps 40/60.
“The key right now is allowing more small businesses, particularly those that are in the upper income bracket, to get that 25 percent rate. We think those are resolvable and hopefully we’re going to get to a point where many small businesses are going to benefit from the lower rate,” said Kerrigan.
A major tactical consideration for lawmakers is how to craft the bill so senators can pass it with a simple majority. Senate rules only allow that to happen if the tax bill does not create additional deficits.
The Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, says the House GOP plan would add $1.7 trillion of deficits over the next decade.
Kerrigan pushes back on the CBO in two ways. First, she points out the CBO’s refusal to factor in economic growth in projecting deficits, a policy known as static scoring versus the dynamic scoring that Kerrigan and others believe is more accurate.
“They leave out the reality in terms of dynamic scoring and the impact that incentives and reduction and putting more money back into the private economy has on growth and people’s behavior and business behavior and that drives growth,” said Kerrigan.
Second, Kerrigan says the CBO has a lousy track record with its projections.
“You’ve got to remember the CBO has been notoriously wrong on a whole range of things over the past 5-10 years. If you look at their predictions on Obamacare, how many people would be insured under Obamacare, really wrong on that. The cost of coverage on Obamacare? They’ve been dramatically wrong on that as well,” said Kerrigan.
As the debate heads to the full House floor and begins separately in the Senate, Kerrigan is confident that Republicans are largely headed in the right direction, but she still wants to see it get better.
“We are working on a bunch of issues so that small businesses will be able to keep the value of that lower rate and get that 25 percent rate. It’s a process and we’re at the table and we’re trying to improve this bill as much as possible so that it will have the best effects for small business and for the economy as well,” said Kerrigan.
The implosion of the Senate’s attempt to address Obamacare also makes effective tax reform more difficult, but the leader of the nation’s largest grassroots taxpayers organization is still optimistic big things can get done.
But make no mistake, repealing the Obamacare taxes was supposed to grease the skids for the tax reform effort.
“The task has not been made easier by the lack of progress on Obamacare repeal and replace, but we’re going to have to approach this with a lot of vigor right now. The American people are waiting to see that this Congress and this administration can get something comprehensive done,” said National Taxpayers Union President Pete Sepp.
How does the failure of the Obamacare repeal specifically impact the tax reform push?
“We’re going to have to deal with some of the Obamacare taxes in some fashion, through tax reform or outside of tax reform simply because several of those Obamacare taxes directly effect conventional income tax rates,” said Sepp.
“I’m talking about, for example, the earned income surtax of 0.9 percent, also the net investment income tax of 3.8 percent. Those types of taxes will actually increase the rate that members of Congress are trying to lower over the long term,” said Sepp.
Nonetheless, Sepp is bullish, even after watching the flop on healthcare in Congress because it appears congressional leaders and administration officials are all singing from the same songsheet this time.
“That means lower tax rates, simpler tax filing procedures, making sure that small businesses don’t pay a higher tax rate than larger ones and, in fact, should pay a lower rate. There are also things that will help to address the lack of competitiveness of our companies overseas and the tax disadvantages there,” said Sepp.
Sepp is pleased that the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee are working in tandem on legislation rather than crafting completely separate bills. He also says GOP friction should ebb greatly now that all the major players agree to stop pursuing the Border Adjustment Tax, which would place taxes on goods entering the U.S.
In addition, Sepp is excited about Republicans trying to drop the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to somewhere between 15-20 percent, and he says the rate for small businesses should be even lower.
He also is hopeful that Congress can remove the massive paperwork burden for business owners.
“We also need to look at how business claim their expenses and write them off. This is an incredibly complex area of the tax code. It amounts to anywhere between 30-50 percent of the paperwork burden that a business faces,” said Sepp.
On individual tax policy, Sepp wants to see Congress pursue much lower tax rates in exchange for removing the vast majority of deductions that are currently available to taxpayers. He says rates really need to plummet before that trade is a good deal for most Americans.
“The rates range from 10 percent to over 40 percent currently. We need to get the rates down even lower, five percent or even zero if we expand the standard deduction and perhaps a top rate of 30-35 percent. If we do that, the trade off of deductions will be worth it,” said Sepp.
Sepp stresses that the status quo is not an option. He says America suffers more each year as America fails to use the tax code for our economic advantage.
“Tax reform needs to happen because companies are inverting every day. They’re taking their headquarters overseas and with it a lot of profits that could be taxed here. The tax code is getting more complex every year. Even if we don’t pass new laws, implementing old ones and designing all the regulations around them add to that burden,” said Sepp.
The chairman of the House of Representatives’ powerful tax writing committee says the tax reform blueprint laid out by President Trump last week is “exciting” and predicts enactment will lead to stronger businesses and more financially secure families.
Trump’s economic team laid out the administration’s principles on Wednesday, including a call for the corporate tax rate to drop from almost 40 percent down to 15 percent, a doubling of the standard individual deduction, and creating just three tax brackets instead of seven.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, loves that Trump is going bold on tax reform.
“This is very exciting,” said Brady. “Americans saw something they haven’t seen in 30 years, which is a president willing to lead on tax reform and committed to working with the House and Senate. We want to get this done this year.”
“We only get one chance in a generation to do this, and like Reagan, we have to go bold to do it,” said Brady.
But Brady is not in a tremendous rush. He says the process needs to play out in the weeks ahead.
“Beginning [this] week, we’re going to roll up our sleeves, sitting down with President Trump’s team and the Senate as well to put together a single tax reform plan that’s going to take place over the coming weeks,” said Brady.
While partisans and the media are focused heavily on the pace of legislative action in the early stages of the Trump administration, Brady says getting it right in a timely fashion is most important.
“I think a lot of press in Washington are focused on which month this happens. My focus is on the year and that means this year, 2017. After 30 years of this broken, complicated tax code, it seems like exactly the right time to deliver,” said Brady.
Brady says the Trump blueprint would be a boon for businesses and families. He says dropping the corporate tax rate to 15 percent would make a monumental difference in America’s business climate. He says the small business owners will be smiling too.
“For small business owners, we propose to cut your taxes by more than 40 percent. That’s so you can send less to Washington. you can invest more in your business, your workers, your success. We provide full, unlimited write-offs of all your investment and building’s equipment, software and technology,” said Brady.
He says other provisions should ease the burdens of small business owners as well.
“We eliminate the death tax, so family-owned businesses no longer have to worry about Uncle Sam swooping in and taking nearly half of what you’ve earned over a lifetime. Then we eliminate some of the double taxation. For small businesses, this is game-changing, since this will grow the economy by more than nine percent” said Brady.
Where the tax bill could run into friction is over a proposed border adjustability tax, which would add a tax on imported goods. While critics say American consumers would end up paying for it in higher prices, Brady says it needs to happen, in part because everyone else except North Korea and Cuba does it.
“They take a major tax off their products heading into America. They slap a tax on their made in America products when it goes in their country,” said Brady.
“A foreign product has a major tax advantage over a made in America product, both here and abroad. So we’re saying for the first time that every product pays an equal tax. So no longer is Chinese steel getting a break over American steel, Mexican beef over American beef, Canadian autos over American autos,” said Brady.
He also says the more level playing field will likely entice many companies that left the U.S. and others that never were here to set up shop in America, adding to even more job creation.
As for families, Brady says the typical family of four will like the bigger paychecks coming home.
“You’re going to keep more of the money that you earn. The tax code is going to be dramatically simpler. If you save for retirement, education or health care, we cut your taxes in half again because we want to reward those types of savings,” said Brady.
“The bottom line is the House Republican blueprint, the idea we’re bringing to the president, is a code so fair and simple, nine out of ten Americans will be able to file using a simple postcard system,” said Brady.
David French of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America discuss President Trump’s executive orders that scrutinize the amount of land designated as national monuments and Obama-era restrictions on offshore drilling. They also groan as it looks like the update health care bill is also struggling to find the votes to pass. And they take aim at the ACLU for suing a Catholic hospital for refusing surgery for a transgender patient.
Ian Tuttle of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America are cautiously optimistic as an amendment to the GOP health care bill gives more power to the states and brings more conservatives on board. They also discuss President Trump’s willingness to renegotiate NAFTA, and Ian explains why he’s concerned about Trump’s approach. And they dive into the effort by Democrats in California to bar businesses from future state contracts if they help to build a border wall.
