Because tax reform is different, White said, for these reasons:

The pressure is on. Considering the midterm elections in 2018 are just 15 months away, pressure is on legislators to act on plans to improve economic growth. The experience to date on health care only adds to the urgency Republicans must feel to deliver on their campaign promises and achieve a big political win with control of Congress and the White House.
More unity. Republicans in Congress are more united on tax reform than health care, and [LPL has] more confidence in the Trump administration's ability, led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chief Economic Advisor Gary Cohn, to lead on this issue.
Progress has been made. [LPL's] primary contacts in Washington have indicated that substantial work on taxes has already been done.
Bipartisan support for repatriation. One of the challenges with lowering the corporate tax rate is replacing the lost revenue to limit budget impact. A reduction in the tax rate companies must pay to bring overseas cash back to the U.S., which enjoys bipartisan support, could generate $150 billion or more in additional tax revenue over 10 years.
Dynamic scoring. Dynamic scoring allows policymakers to assume an incremental growth impact, and more tax revenue, from the reduced tax rate that can be used to offset the cost of lowering the rate. Republicans may also be able to change the budget baseline to facilitate revenue-neutral scorekeeping (revenue-neutral policy is required under reconciliation, which is the legislative maneuver necessary to get tax reform through Congress with only a simple majority rather than the standard 60-vote requirement).

Greg Valliere, chief global strategist for Horizon Investments, also recently said that he fields questions almost daily on the likely effective date of a new tax bill.

Instant Insights /

5 reasons tax reform is still alive

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