Before repealing Muni bond tax exemption, Congress should carefully consider potential short and long-term impacts on state and local governments and their taxpayers.
Lawmakers would be arguing that the tax bill is merely extending current tax policy and that this non-event would contribute to a big increase in the economy.
Being deputized to help carry out deportations would be a new responsibility for IRS-Criminal Investigation agents, requiring additional training and diverting from other activities with proven benefits.
How will Congress extend expiring provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and advance other Trump Administration tax priorities—that some budget watchers have ballparked could cost up to $11 trillion—while staying within the resolution’s $4.5 trillion tax cut target? One suggested but not fully examined idea: Modify the extension of its lower individual income tax rates.
The U.S. recently surpassed the unfortunate milestone where all new federal revenue is already committed to specific spending priorities due to existing laws. As discussed in my recent book, Beyond Zombie Rule: Reclaiming Fiscal Sanity in a Broken Congress, this obstruction of current and future voters’ ability to make decisions has been growing under all recent presidents. That growth shows no sign of abating under President Trump.
In the end, Congress will have to pay for tax cuts and new spending by raising trillions of dollars in other taxes, cutting other spending, or by borrowing the money. And no scorekeeping tricks can change that
