Trump should focus on tax reform

OPINION:

My friends at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity recently launched the Tax Cut Victory Alliance, which led me to wonder what happened to tax reform. As recently as November, it, along with immigration, was most of what candidate Donald Trump talked about.

We were going to extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. We were going to reduce taxes on tips, overtime, Social Security benefits, first responders, home health care providers, corporate profits, rich people’s homes on the coasts, and on and on.

Despite all that, for most of the 50 or so days since the inauguration, we have been locked in national conversations about tariffs, the federal government’s head count, what to do about Ukraine, the Gaza Strip and other potential vacation spots, and what, ultimately, will we call the Gulf of Mexico and Greenland.

Consider the president’s address to the joint session of Congress. It was a speech that had something for everyone, but to judge by simple word count, more was said about Ukraine, the fundamental unfairness of men competing against women in organized sports, and the Department of Government Efficiency than was said about tax reform.

The good news is that immigration, one of the two pillars of the president’s electoral victory (along with the economy), received more attention in the speech than any other topic. That is as it should be. The voters sent Mr. Trump back to office to deal with the most impressive land invasion in the history of the world. Transgender issues got about 200 words. Ukraine got about 275 words. Elon Musk’s efforts to slash the federal workforce got more than 750 words. Tax reform? Tax reform got about 190 words.

It is not complicated. People usually assume correctly that how much you talk about a certain person, event or issue compared with other people, events or issues is a pretty good indicator of what you care about. In politics, that assumption is absolutely correct. Elected officials focus on and talk about the issues they care about most.

Which brings us back to the Tax Cut Victory Alliance. In announcing the creation of the alliance, Stephen Moore said the president himself had asked its crew to launch and lead an effort to pass legislation to make the 2017 tax cuts permanent by May(!), to ensure that corporate tax rates remain low and to try to lower them to 15%, and to secure provisions encouraging greater growth in business investment. They were also asked by the president to reform the process by which the Joint Committee on Taxation assesses (or “scores”) tax provisions for their effect on federal budgets.

That all sounds very good; sign me up. But before you get too far down the road, you might want to ensure that the president is fully committed and prepared for the necessary drudgery of selling tax reform to the American public and their tribunes in Congress.

Then, make sure that Team Trump puts tax reform where it should be: at the center of all of its efforts, rhetorical and otherwise.

• Michael McKenna is a contributing editor at The Washington Times.