House GOP Looking To Push Tax Reform Through

House Republicans are speeding up efforts to pass tax reform, a key for agriculture, but an American Farm Bureau official says, for procedural reasons, health care reform will come first in the Senate.  AFBF Tax Adviser Pat Wolff said after the House passed its healthcare reform bill as part of a budget adjustment process that will require only a simple majority for the Senate to pass its version.

“The Health Care Bill is moving through on last year’s budget reconciliation.  Taxes are supposed to move on this year’s budget reconciliation.  IF they start on taxes before they finish up Health Care, that reconciliation for health care evaporates.”

That would force Senate Republicans to secure a 60-vote supermajority, including some unwilling Democrats, to pass healthcare reform.  Wolff said the GOP would basically be giving up on healthcare.  But it’s giving up on neither healthcare nor tax reform

“And there is a real desire among Republicans in Congress and the White House to announce a single platform for tax reform, so there will be a pre agreement or an agreement on what tax reform is going to look like, so they don’t have to argue about the main principles, only deal with the details.”

One of the larger details, according to Wolff, how to help pay for planned tax cuts.

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