Speaking to reporters at a rally in Cincinnati yesterday, Vice President-elect Mike Pence asserted that he and President-elect Donald Trump will move quickly to combat legislative gridlock and enact a number of key provisions from their campaign platform.
Pence stated that during the first 100 days of the Trump administration there will be substantial efforts to reform the nation’s immigration policy, repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, put forth policies to strengthen the military, and to fill the current vacancy on the Supreme Court.
Pence also noted that the Trump administration will work with Congress to pass a comprehensive tax reform measure, designed to “free up the pent-up energy in the American economy[and] benefit American workers and strengthen American incomes.”
Speaking at a Heritage Foundation event, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) reiterated his interest in moving quickly and in step with the incoming president to finalize and introduce comprehensive tax reform legislation in early 2017. President-elect Trump’s campaign economic proposal and the House Republican “blueprint” for tax reform released over the summer feature common principles, including reducing the corporate tax rate, simplifying the international tax code, and drastically increasing the standard deduction to reduce the number of taxpayers who itemize.
Both proposals in their current forms would also retain the charitable deduction for itemizers, but Trump’s plan would place a hard dollar cap on the amount taxpayers may claim for all deductions at $100,000 per individual taxpayer ($200,000 for couples).
Sources: The Hill, WCEY tax legislative alert
