Republican Tax Plan Descends Into Smoke and Mirrors

Here’s the latest news on the tax front:

Senate Republicans on Thursday plan to propose delaying a cut in the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent until 2019, four people briefed on the planning said, a major departure from President Trump’s insistence on immediate changes that he says are necessary to spur the economy….To try to prevent companies from waiting until 2019 to invest, Senate Republicans will propose to allow companies to immediately deduct all capital investments in 2018 to incentivize them to spend more money immediately, the people said.

I have two comments:

• This is idiocy in the extreme. The sole reason for delaying the tax cut is to reduce the cost of the plan in its first ten years. It makes no sense as policy, but it’s a good way to game the CBO score.
• It’s not a “major departure” from anything. Donald Trump doesn’t have a clue what he really wants, and he will praise anything that Republicans produce.

We are now entering serious smoke-and-mirrors territory.