The Brian Mudd Show

The Brian Mudd Show

There are two sides to stories and one side to facts. That's Brian's mantra and what drives him to get beyond the headlines.Full Bio

 

What we want - Part 2: Tax reform

What we want - Part 2: While Congress continues to struggle to do it's job on tax reform - here's what we want to see happen (and this is pretty clear):

Bottom Line: Despite many in the media, be they pro or con the Trump administration/agenda, my biggest concern isn't political outcomes. It's actual outcomes. Like many my greatest frustration within the first near-six months of the Trump administration has been the ineptitude of Congress to pass the meaningful reforms they ran on and are critical parts of the Trump agenda. Most of all they're what's most important to most of us. On Inauguration Day Gallup polling showed these three agenda items being the most important:

  • 80%: Healthcare reform
  • 77%: Tax reform
  • 64%: SCOTUS

After quick success with the Supreme Court, optimism about healthcare and tax reform seemed justified. After months of politics as usual, it's easy to have lost confidence that meaningful reforms making healthcare more affordable and lowering our tax burden will still happen. Gallup is out with their latest round of research on healthcare and tax reform and it's clear that action is still overwhelming desired. Gallup's latest polling on tax reform is especially interesting...

Donald Trump's tax proposal is overwhelmingly favored by Americans...that is when just the details of the tax plan are laid out and his name isn't attached to it. President Trump's tax plan calls for simplifying the tax code from seven brackets to three and lowering the overall tax rates while limiting deductions. Those three rates are 35%, 25% & 10%. When Gallup laid out the President's ideas without his name attached here were the results on personal income taxes:

  • 61% in favor
  • 26% not in favor
  • 13% no opinion

On the question of ending the estate tax:

  • 54% in favor
  • 19% not in favor
  • 27% no opinion

So it's pretty evident that there's not only overwhelming support for tax reform but specifically President Trump's version of tax reform. Much like healthcare reform you have most Americans wanting it to happen and Congress not having shown an ability to do what they were elected to do. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is still indicating an early September timeline for the reform to move forward but much like with healthcare reform - I want to be optimistic but will believe it when I see it.


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