Trump lagging in announcement of tax reform

by Adedotun Michael

President Trump is largely falling behind in the actualization of tax reform which was expected to materialize this August, Politico reports.

The setbacks

It is somewhat disappointing to see the highly emphasized policy still wallowing in elementary stages despite White House officials, particularly former press secretary Sean Spicer, saying in July that “Trump would be hitting the road to lay the groundwork for tax reform before administration and congressional negotiators wrapped up their high-level work in September”.

However, with less than two weeks to the resumption of Congress from the August recess with Republican leaders hoping to launch a major push to get tax legislation to the president’s desk by the end of the year, the White House has not done much.

The distracting factors

Instead of laying premium on the subject, the President spent most of the month on Foreign policy issues which includes war of words with North Korea and the announcement of an increased troop presence in Afghanistan, coupled with domestic fights with top GOP leaders who bemoaned his Charlottesville responses and a “give all it takes threat” of a government shut down to push for his southern border wall funding.

Michael Steel, a Republican communications veteran of the House Ways and Means Committee who worked for former Speaker John Boehner but now a managing director at Hamilton Place Strategies – a public affairs firm doing work in support of tax reform, called out Trump’s antagonistic tweets toward Republican senators, especially Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, as especially counterproductive, “It’s utterly inexplicable,” he added.

An assuring promise

While the White House declined to respond to multiple requests for comment, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a press briefing that “tax reform could be a public focus for the White House as soon as next week.”

She said, “Tax relief and the focus on tax relief for middle-class Americans is a huge priority for this administration, and certainly going to be a big focus in the fall, and we’re going to look at a lot of different ways in which to talk about that and present that to the American people, working with Congress to make sure that that happens.”

She stressed further, “I think that you can expect some of that to take place in the very short order, probably next week and following through to the fall.”

The lack of focus from the Trump Cabinet is certainly downplaying the targeted efforts of congressional Republican leaders, business executives and conservative activists to build public support for tax reform before Congress reconvenes.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

cool good eh love2 cute confused notgood numb disgusting fail