The White House has turned its attention to tax reform following President Donald Trump’s effort to undo ObamaCare derailed by opposition from Republican senators.
The long-held GOP goal of re-engineering the U.S. tax system has now become a political imperative for the Trump administration, which has yet to deliver any major legislative victories despite Republican control of the White House and both houses of Congress, Politico reads.
“They know they could really use a win,” said Larry Kudlow, an informal economic adviser to the Trump campaign, who met with Trump last week. “The president, from the get-go, has been much more comfortable with tax cuts than health care.”
Donors and influential Republicans are particularly eager to see tax reform completed before the 2018 midterms — both for their own bottom lines and because it will be harder for Republicans to hold on to Congress without policy accomplishments, White House advisers and outside supporters fear.
“If Republicans fail to repeal or at least substantially roll back ObamaCare, it raises the stakes dramatically to pass into law a big, bold tax-reform plan,” said Tim Phillips, who leads Americans for Prosperity, the political group backed by the Koch brothers.
“On the political side, the biggest problem that Republicans could face in 2018 is not a partisan battle. It’s a sense of incompetence and inability to govern that will be most painful,” said Josh Holmes, a longtime McConnell adviser and former chief of staff.
“Unless they can figure out how to reverse this quickly, you can see where this cascades into more issues past health care,” Holmes added.
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