, Columnists
Is Tax Reform Doomed? A Debate.
West thinks the odds of tax reform in the current Congress have risen to 50-50. Josh Barro still thinks itâs doomed. Yesterday, they debated the prospects.Â
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Last month, Sean West of the Eurasia Group wrote for the Ticker that the prospects for tax reform were dim. Democratic Senator Max Baucus and Republican Representative Dave Camp, who head the relevant tax committees in Congress, had just agreed to pursue tax reform through an open committee process, which West took as a sign that they planned to slow-walk it to death.
Baucus, it seemed, was going to face a tough re-election fight in 2014 and wouldn't want to make the enemies that would come from enacting tax reform. He'd pay lip service to reform but not really try to pass it. It also wasn't clear how committed the president was to reform.