Tax Reform's 'Magnificent Moment’
Fresh off his landslide reelection, Ronald Reagan could have spent
his political capital on many things. What he chose was tax reform.“No other issue goes so directly to the heart of our economic life. No other issue will have more lasting impact on the wellbeing of your families and your future,” he told the nation in a prime time address from the Oval Office.
Reagan understood that tax reform was a critically important conservative economic priority for our families and future generations because it would jump start the economy, improve our economy's competitiveness and cut countless market distorting loopholes out of the code that attempt to engineer social policy.
But he also knew to put such a major undertaking at the beginning of his term, when attempting significant reform is most likely to bear fruit.
The next president faces similar circumstances to Reagan in that the nation is desperate need of reform in many areas including the tax code. Once again tax reform should take place right away, in the next president’s first 100 days.
The U.S. corporate tax rate is the highest of any country in the developed world, and behind only Chad and United Arab Emirates when you include every last nation down to tiny archipelagos and dysfunctional tin-pot dictatorships in the comparison.
