WP: Trump is about two weeks away from discovering how complicated tax reform can be

[Jimbo101]

Washington Post

President Trump is about two weeks away from discovering how complicated tax reform can be.

Now, it was always going to be difficult, but, as we’ll get to in a minute, it got a lot more so after the GOP’s seven-year quest to repeal and replace Obamacare stalled not with a vote, but with another one of the Trump administration’s ritual rounds of recrimination. Indeed, at this point, Trump getting tax reform done looks about as likely as Trump University joining the Ivy League.

Before we get to that, though, what’s the difference between a tax cut and tax reform? Easy: the first is just about reducing tax rates, while the second is about paying for reduced tax rates by closing tax loopholes. The problem, of course, is that one person’s tax break is another person’s tax essential, the kind of “essential” —such as deducting mortgage interest, or state and local taxes, or not having to pay anything on health insurance — that voters would rather have than a lower tax rate. That’s especially true of the industries whose entire business models are built on the assumption that these tax breaks will exist, like realtors and developers and private equity managers.

In other words, tax cuts are easy because everyone is a winner, but tax reform is hard because there are losers.

[tazkcmo]

1. Break out the abacus, Donnie!

You can't do this with just your fingers and toes.


Edit: Removed edit to avoid thread hijacking

[Adrahil]

2. Who knew!? NT