With the startling, positive outreach to the congressional Democratic leadership to forge an agreement on short-term funding of the government to avert a shutdown, increasing the debt ceiling and funding Hurricane Harvey relief, followed by further efforts to enlist Democrats on immigration reform and tax reform, the door is now more open than seemed possible for President Trump to create a bipartisan coalition for tax reform and tax cuts, just as Republican icon Ronald Reagan did in 1986. While Trump in 1991 told Congress the 1986 tax act was an “absolute catastrophe” because it closed real estate loopholes important to his business, as president he has warmly endorsed it.
The 1986 Tax Reform Act, signed by President Reagan almost exactly 31 years ago, was the first across-the-board tax reduction for everyone since the Kennedy tax cuts, and there have been none since. President Carter tried and failed to pass a comprehensive tax reform bill in 1978-’79, even with a heavily Democratic Congress...
from The Hill
Ambassador Eizenstat served as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union from 1993 to 1996. He has held a number of key senior positions over the course of three U.S. administrations including chief White House domestic policy adviser to President Jimmy Carter, Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs, and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton Administration.