Shocked by Donald Trump’s election, Democrats adopted a strategy of resistance that’s simple and blunt: Anything Trump is for, they’re against. It’s turned out to be one of the least successful strategies a political party has ever pursued. Yet Democrats have stuck to it.
At least resistance does have one benefit. It assures Democrats they’re operating on higher moral ground than Republicans. This may explain why their commitment to resist Trump didn’t flag in 2017. They didn’t bother with offering an alternative tax bill. Their job is to resist.
The result has been a string of failures. And passage of Trump’s tax reform bill in the House and Senate last week is the worst. Every Democrat opposed it. The bill is filled with provisions Democrats hate and others long sought by Republicans. For Democrats, it was a loser across the board.
But it didn’t have to be that way. Had Democrats negotiated with Republicans, they might have saved the provision they most wanted to preserve—the full deductibility of state and local taxes. It’s a crucial break in rich, high-tax states like New York, New Jersey, and California.
President Reagan tried to kill deductibility in the tax reform legislation of 1986. But that was a bipartisan effort, and Democrats insisted on keeping it. Now they’re on the outside looking in.
Were they willing to compromise, they could have agreed to a deeper cut in the corporate rate than the original drafters of the Trump bill ever expected—and might have saved full deductibility. The Wall Street Journal suggested another deal. Democrats could have offered to eliminate the business tax entirely in exchange for a carbon tax. Republicans might have taken that deal.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/feeble-resistance/article/2010954
At least resistance does have one benefit. It assures Democrats they’re operating on higher moral ground than Republicans. This may explain why their commitment to resist Trump didn’t flag in 2017. They didn’t bother with offering an alternative tax bill. Their job is to resist.
The result has been a string of failures. And passage of Trump’s tax reform bill in the House and Senate last week is the worst. Every Democrat opposed it. The bill is filled with provisions Democrats hate and others long sought by Republicans. For Democrats, it was a loser across the board.
But it didn’t have to be that way. Had Democrats negotiated with Republicans, they might have saved the provision they most wanted to preserve—the full deductibility of state and local taxes. It’s a crucial break in rich, high-tax states like New York, New Jersey, and California.
President Reagan tried to kill deductibility in the tax reform legislation of 1986. But that was a bipartisan effort, and Democrats insisted on keeping it. Now they’re on the outside looking in.
Were they willing to compromise, they could have agreed to a deeper cut in the corporate rate than the original drafters of the Trump bill ever expected—and might have saved full deductibility. The Wall Street Journal suggested another deal. Democrats could have offered to eliminate the business tax entirely in exchange for a carbon tax. Republicans might have taken that deal.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/feeble-resistance/article/2010954
