Conservative Split Over Import Tax Imperils Trump’s Overhaul

  • 7 years ago
Conservative Split Over Import Tax Imperils Trump’s Overhaul
For Mr. Ryan, who holds more conventional free-trade views than Mr. Trump, the new tax provides a way to satisfy
Mr. Trump’s protectionist impulses without imposing punitive, and potentially even more disruptive, tariffs.
Both the Club for Growth and the Koch network also played a critical role in killing a proposal backed by Mr. Ryan
and Mr. Trump to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
Mr. Trump’s Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and his top economic adviser, Gary
Cohn — both former Goldman Sachs bankers — are said to be leery of the border tax.
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and ALAN RAPPEPORTAPRIL 1, 2017
One conservative group produced colorful flow charts warning millennials
that a "border adjustment" tax proposed by Speaker Paul D. Ryan would raise prices on "the Jose Cuervo tequila that’s in your happy hour margarita." Three days later, a second conservative group kicked off a lobbying campaign saying it would amount to a $1.2 trillion tax on seniors and the working poor.
Cotton said that Most conservatives I know have long believed that tax reform would look at all of the carve-outs in the tax code,
Groups like Americans for Tax Reform — headed by Grover Norquist, perhaps Washington’s most famous anti-tax crusader — have praised
the border tax proposal, saying it would put American businesses "on a level playing field" with foreign competitors.

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