No Real Deadline for Tax Reform

Playbook: “There really is no deadline to get tax reform done. The end-of-the-year proclamations are silly, according to most of the people we talk to. This could — and many think it should — take time. It’s tough (just ask the WSJ’s Rich Rubin). It’s complicated. Congress is rewriting the entire tax code — and that affects everyone in the United States. Plenty of lawmakers tell us it should take something like six months.”

“At the end of the day, all the senior aides and lawmakers we speak to say that this remains, at best, a 60-40 proposition. Yeah, Republicans feel pretty good about where things are. But that’s mostly out of fear of losing their majorities. Many things can stop this process dead in its tracks.”

Key takeaway: “Until Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell pull the plug, this thing is alive and kicking.”