Yesterday's Big Six meeting: Another verse, same as the first. Reps. Paul Ryan and Kevin Brady, Sens. Mitch McConnell and Orrin Hatch, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House economic policy chief Gary Cohn met with President Trump yesterday. Their goal: Rewrite much of the tax system by the end of the year. The likely reality? Said TPC's Len Burman: "I can’t imagine they can get to the end of the year without passing something but I can’t figure out what the something would be or how they would get it done." President Trump is scheduled to meet today with Rep. Pelosi and Sen. Schumer as well as Ryan and McConnell in a rare bipartisan session.
A debt-limit extension and Harvey aid mashup? House leaders are still looking for a way to combine an extension of the federal borrowing limit and at least a first tranche of Harvey-related emergency funding. Politico reports that one idea would be for the House to pass a disaster funding bill as early as today, let the Senate add the debt limit extension, and then have the House OK the entire package. Complicating matters: fears that Hurricane Irma will boost funding needs by billions of dollars more.
Businesses bring the big bucks to push for tax cuts. The Job Creators Network launched a multi-million dollar campaign urging Congress to pass small business tax cuts by year’s end, retroactive to the start of 2017. The business coalition counts Home Depot, Best Buy, and BB&T bank among its members and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich among its backers. It argues that tax cuts will create jobs and improve wages.
The US Chamber of Commerce focuses on a smaller target: The HIT. The Chamber kicked off a digital media campaign urging repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s tax on health insurers. The tax is scheduled to go into effect in December. Said Neil Bradley of the Chamber: “We want to remind [Congress] that delaying the health insurance tax must be a priority. Time is running out. In a few months this tax will return, and small business owners, families, and seniors will shoulder the cost.”
There’s a way to reduce health care costs in tax reform… Joe Antos and Jim Capretta of The American Enterprise Institute argue that “Republicans can still improve health care and lower costs if they change the treatment of employer-sponsored health insurance plans in tax reform…. Congress should scrap the Cadillac tax and [count health insurance] premium payments above a threshold… as taxable income to workers.”
Trumping tax cuts for Microsoft: Dreamers. The software giant says Congress should protect undocumented immigrants who entered the US as children before it passes tax reform. About 800,000 young people had been allowed to live and work or go to school in the US under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that President Trump has decided to rescind.
Tune in tomorrow: Tax Policy and the Immigrant Experience. In a live webcast beginning at 9am, join leading practitioners from advocacy and government organizations as they discuss the challenges immigrants face and discuss how current policies and possible changes would affect the one in four Americans who are immigrants or children of immigrants. Urban Institute scholar Kim Rueben, director of the State and Local Finance Initiative, will share take-aways from a National Academies of Science report on the economic and fiscal effects of immigration. Joining her in the conversation: Amanda Bartmann for the National Taxpayer Advocate, Cara Cardotti, of the United Way of Greater Richmond and Petersburg, Sam Solomon of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, and Jackie Vimo of the National Immigration Law Center. TPC’s Howard Gleckman will moderate.
