Although the Trump administration and the Republican leaders in Congress desperately want to pivot to tax reform, the volume of actual “must do” legislation that must be considered in September will inevitably siphon time and attention from tax reform efforts.
Further, despite an August communications offensive on the tax reform issue, neither Congress nor the Administration have provided details fleshing out the principles and concepts on which they supposedly agree. Given that the countdown clock for enacting tax legislation before the 2018 election season begins in earnest is already ticking, if Congress and the administration want to enact tax legislation with only Republican votes, they will be increasingly pulled in the direction of tax cuts and temporary provisions rather than comprehensive tax reform and permanent changes.
